WATERBURY, VT – An individual who was reportedly instrumental in administering Vermont State Police’s (VSP) policies governing a fair and impartial approach to policing was fired from their position earlier in September.
While the dismissal could be explained away as VSP trimming proverbial administrative fat, the individual believes he was fired over reasons related to “politics.”
VSP’s “Fair and Impartial Policing”(FAIP) was established back in 2009 by way of a committee meant to meet every quarter to serve “as an advisory group to the Vermont State Police” tasked with discussing “critical issues such as addressing bias in policing; addressing anti-Semitism, hate-motivated crime and incidents that affect LGBTQIA+ individuals and groups,” among other initiatives.
The aforementioned committee is hardly anything controversial, nor particularly out of the ordinary, as numerous police forces and agencies across the United States integrate various sorts of committees meant to ensure officers are adhering to policing practices that abstain from being tarnished by actual or perceived biases.
Outside of VSP’s FAIP committee quarterly meetings, the police force also had an in-house administrator who was seemingly tasked with ensuring VSP was living up to the standards outlined in the FAIP mission, which the admin in question just so happened to be onboarded back in 2020 amid the national backlash to George Floyd’s death.
Etan Nasreddin-Longo, the recently fired VSP FAIP admin, recalls that the state police wanted to separate from their formal employer/employee relationship earlier in September, suggesting Nasreddin-Longo function as a consultant.
As a result, it seems Nasreddin-Longo would’ve likely needed to obtain professional liability insurance to carry on a consultant-based relationship with VSP, but the abovementioned transition of Nasreddin-Longo’s relationship with VSP never materialized for reasons undisclosed, as he was dismissed from VSP later in the month.
Speaking on his recent termination, Nasreddin-Longo stated, “I’m at will; they don’t owe me a reason, legally. As far as the communities with whom we work are concerned, they do owe them a reason.”
Nasreddin-Longo believes that the era of the second Trump administration is intrinsically linked with his dismissal, saying, “It would be very weird not to see a link between this and national politics.”
While Nasreddin-Longo’s theory of political winds shifting causing his termination could be accurate, another logical conclusion could be that VSP brass had come to the realization that the role he executed wasn’t exactly needed anymore - or ever, potentially – a theory supported by the fact that VSP entertained a consultancy role as opposed to having Nasreddin-Longo work as a full-time employee with the department.
Additional data supporting an innocuous termination can be easily observed when reviewing that VSP maintained FAIP operations and implementations from 2009 to 2020 without Nasreddin-Longo’s in-house services.
Furthermore, his convenient onboarding in 2020 can be more heavily linked to political motivations rather than his termination when taking into consideration numerous police agencies aiming for good optics amid the BLM-era of rioting and anti-police sentiments of the time.
VSP hasn’t issued any public comments on the motivations behind Nasreddin-Longo’s termination, but the state’s Department of Public Safety did release a statement which reads, “The department’s longstanding commitment to the principles of fair and impartial policing remains unchanged, and the work of the Office of Fair and Impartial Policing and Community Affairs will continue.”
While the dismissal could be explained away as VSP trimming proverbial administrative fat, the individual believes he was fired over reasons related to “politics.”
VSP’s “Fair and Impartial Policing”(FAIP) was established back in 2009 by way of a committee meant to meet every quarter to serve “as an advisory group to the Vermont State Police” tasked with discussing “critical issues such as addressing bias in policing; addressing anti-Semitism, hate-motivated crime and incidents that affect LGBTQIA+ individuals and groups,” among other initiatives.
The aforementioned committee is hardly anything controversial, nor particularly out of the ordinary, as numerous police forces and agencies across the United States integrate various sorts of committees meant to ensure officers are adhering to policing practices that abstain from being tarnished by actual or perceived biases.
Outside of VSP’s FAIP committee quarterly meetings, the police force also had an in-house administrator who was seemingly tasked with ensuring VSP was living up to the standards outlined in the FAIP mission, which the admin in question just so happened to be onboarded back in 2020 amid the national backlash to George Floyd’s death.
Etan Nasreddin-Longo, the recently fired VSP FAIP admin, recalls that the state police wanted to separate from their formal employer/employee relationship earlier in September, suggesting Nasreddin-Longo function as a consultant.
As a result, it seems Nasreddin-Longo would’ve likely needed to obtain professional liability insurance to carry on a consultant-based relationship with VSP, but the abovementioned transition of Nasreddin-Longo’s relationship with VSP never materialized for reasons undisclosed, as he was dismissed from VSP later in the month.
Speaking on his recent termination, Nasreddin-Longo stated, “I’m at will; they don’t owe me a reason, legally. As far as the communities with whom we work are concerned, they do owe them a reason.”
Nasreddin-Longo believes that the era of the second Trump administration is intrinsically linked with his dismissal, saying, “It would be very weird not to see a link between this and national politics.”
While Nasreddin-Longo’s theory of political winds shifting causing his termination could be accurate, another logical conclusion could be that VSP brass had come to the realization that the role he executed wasn’t exactly needed anymore - or ever, potentially – a theory supported by the fact that VSP entertained a consultancy role as opposed to having Nasreddin-Longo work as a full-time employee with the department.
Additional data supporting an innocuous termination can be easily observed when reviewing that VSP maintained FAIP operations and implementations from 2009 to 2020 without Nasreddin-Longo’s in-house services.
Furthermore, his convenient onboarding in 2020 can be more heavily linked to political motivations rather than his termination when taking into consideration numerous police agencies aiming for good optics amid the BLM-era of rioting and anti-police sentiments of the time.
VSP hasn’t issued any public comments on the motivations behind Nasreddin-Longo’s termination, but the state’s Department of Public Safety did release a statement which reads, “The department’s longstanding commitment to the principles of fair and impartial policing remains unchanged, and the work of the Office of Fair and Impartial Policing and Community Affairs will continue.”
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