{"id":1279,"date":"2024-06-24T15:03:15","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T15:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncssinc.org\/news\/?p=1279"},"modified":"2024-06-27T14:28:01","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T14:28:01","slug":"300-st-albans-residents-and-officials-gather-for-forum-on-crime-and-public-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncssinc.org\/news\/300-st-albans-residents-and-officials-gather-for-forum-on-crime-and-public-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"300 St. Albans residents and officials gather for forum on crime and public safety"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4>By Bridget Higdon<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"758\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ncssinc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/pub-safety-article.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ncssinc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/pub-safety-article.jpg 758w, https:\/\/www.ncssinc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/pub-safety-article-300x198.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 758px) 100vw, 758px\" \/><figcaption>Left to right: Panelists Mayor Tim Smith, Franklin County State\u2019s Attorney Bram Kranichfeld, retired judge Greg Rainville, moderator Emerson Lynn, Police Chief Maurice Lamothe,<br>mental health clinician Samantha Weber and State Rep. Mike McCarthy (D-St. Albans City).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>ST. ALBANS CITY \u2014 Fear. Hope. Frustration. Compassion. All of those emotions and more were on display Tuesday night when more than 300 people showed up at city hall to discuss rising crime rates and public safety concerns in St. Albans.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The topic has emerged as a community discussion point in recent months after residents and business owners took notice of recent increases in property crime and retail theft in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI am totally shocked at what has happened to St. Albans City,\u201d resident Robin Bluen said. \u201cBrings me to tears what\u2019s happened.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Providing treatment&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Samantha Weber, the crisis clinician from Northwestern Counseling and Support Services embedded within the St. Albans Police Department, works every day to convince people to seek treatment for substance use.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI hear a lot of \u2018No, I don&#8217;t want help,\u2019\u201d Weber said. \u201cBut I want to be there the first time they&#8217;re willing to say \u2018yes,\u2019 and for them to know they aren&#8217;t going to do it alone.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In order to get sober, a person with addiction has to want treatment. There are very few circumstances in Vermont in which people receive involuntary treatment, which Weber said research shows is often ineffective anyway.&nbsp;<strong><em>Read more\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Link to entire article plus, production by Northwest Access TV of the entire forum that can be viewed here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.samessenger.com\/news\/government\/300-st-albans-residents-and-officials-gather-for-forum-on-crime-and-public-safety\/article_10ed2fae-2f36-11ef-989f-2f1095de9759.html?utm_source=samessenger.com&amp;utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletter%2Foptimize%2Ftoday%2F%3F-dc%3D1718964003&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=headline\">https:\/\/www.samessenger.com\/news\/government\/300-st-albans-residents-and-officials-gather-for-forum-on-crime-and-public-safety\/article_10ed2fae-2f36-11ef-989f-2f1095de9759.html?utm_source=samessenger.com&amp;utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletter%2Foptimize%2Ftoday%2F%3F-dc%3D1718964003&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=headline<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Bridget Higdon ST. ALBANS CITY \u2014 Fear. Hope. Frustration. Compassion. All of those emotions and more were on display Tuesday night when more than 300 people showed up at city hall to discuss rising crime rates and public safety concerns in St. Albans.&nbsp; The topic has emerged as a community discussion point in recent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncssinc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncssinc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncssinc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncssinc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncssinc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1279"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncssinc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1285,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncssinc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions\/1285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncssinc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncssinc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncssinc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncssinc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}