Burlington police will now respond to calls based on priority Burlington's police chief says staffing issues are to blame. Share Updated: 10:01 PM EDT May 24, 2021 Burlington's police chief says staffing issues are to blame. Share Updated: 10:01 PM EDT May 24, 2021 Hide Transcript Show Transcript BURLINGTON POLICE... ARE MAKING CHANGES TO HOW THEY RESPOND TO CALLS... FROM NOW ON. IT WILL NOW BE BASED ON áPRIORITY. NBC 5'S ZURI HOFFMAN IS LIVE AT ONE NORTH AVENUE. ZURI.. WHAT'S CAUSING THE CHANGE in policy... BURLINGTON CHEIF JON MURAD SAYS... STAFFING IS THE BIGGEST ISSUE. THERES JUST NOT ENOUGH OFFICERS TO RESPOND TO CALLS QUICKY. AND - AFTER TWO GUNFIRE INCIDENTS IN BURLINGTON THIS WEEKEND... ITS PROMPTING THEM TO MAKE SOME CHANGES. (TAKE PKG) (NAT VIDEO) (We all just ran inside and lock the door and we were like whoa what was just that) LAUREN GIAMMARELLA WASN'T EXPECTING COLLEGE BLOCK PARTY'S - IN FRONT OF HER HOME HERE ON ISHAM STREET... TO END IN GUN FIRE... IN THE EARLY HOURS OF SATURDAY AND SUNDAY MORNING. (SOT) (I never felt not safe on this street until this weekend) POLICE SAY - THERE WERE TWO SEPARATE GUNFIRE INCIDENTS... áBOTH NIGHTS- HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE TOOK THE STREETS OF BURLINGTON TO PARTY- OVER THE WEEKEND. AND- AS POLICE WORK TO FIGURE WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT. BPD'S ACTING POLICE CHIEF JON MURAD- ANNOUNCING THE POLICE DEPARTMENT WILL BEGIN USING A NEW APPROACH- THEY'RE CALLING A "PRIORITY RESPONSE PLAN." (SOT) (The reasons for the implementation of this plan are simple it is staffing and our diminishing headcount and our recent incident volume) INCIDENT TYPES... WILL NOW BE SORTED INTO THREE CATEGORIES BASED ON PRIORITY. ALLOWING POLICE TO STACK CALLS FOR SERVICE. SITUATIONS LIKE ASSAULTS, OVERDOSES AND ROBBERIES- WILL BE PRIORITIZED THE HIGHEST. SITUATIONS SUCH AS DISORDERLY CONDUCT OR MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES - FALLS INTO CATEGORY 2- BUT- THEY'LL BE LOOKED AT ON A CASE BY CASE BASES. WHICH MEANS CALLS IN PRIORITY THREE- SUCH AS NOISE COMPLAINTS OR VANDALISM... MAY NOT RECEIVE A RESPONSE UNTIL TWO OR MORE OFFICERS ARE AVAILABLE. BASED ON NUMBERS FROM 20-20- THAT COULD MEAN A DELAYED RESPONSE FOR ABOUT 50 PERCENT OF CALLS. (SOT) (We knew that our staffing decreased an as incident volume it picked up there would be times where we would simply not have the resources to respond) MURAD SAYS- PRIORITY ONE INCIDENTS HAVE INCREASED OVER THE PAST YEAR. REGULARLY- THEY ONLY HAVE SIX OFFICERS AVAILABLE TO COVER MORE THAN 40 THOUSAND PEOPLE IN THE CITY OF BURLINGTON. MURAD SAYS- HE PLANS TO HIGER UNARMED COMMUNITY SERVICE OFFICERS... WHO CAN HELP WITH PRIORITY 3 INCIDENTS- BUT- HIRING AND TRAINING THEM WILL TAKE NEARLY 7 AND A HALF MONTHS. MAYOR MIRO WEINBERGER SENT NBC5 A STATEMENT SAYING PEOPLE IN BURLINGTON SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT POLICE WILL RESPOND TO SERIOUS INCIDENTS AND THEY ARE FOCUSED ON A NUMBER OF STRATEGIES TO HELP... JUST FOR BACKGROUND- THIS COMES AFTER BURLINGTON CITY COUNCIL REDUCED IT HE NUMBER OF SWORN OFFICERS - LAST YEAR. MURAD SAYS- THIS SHOULD NOT IMPACT OVERALL PUBLI