The Queen City has a new top cop.
The Burlington City Council voted on Monday night 10-2 to appoint Anthony Geraci to lead the city’s police department. Geraci, a veteran law enforcement officer, has spent most of his career in the Albany, New York region.
In Burlington, he’s set to take over a department that’s spent the last several years beleaguered by staffing challenges, changes in leadership, and debate over how to address public drug use and homelessness.
Ahead of his confirmation on Monday, Geraci said he was committed to building relationships with the Burlington community.
“I believe effective policing requires trust, transparency, accountability, and meaningful partnerships,” Geraci said at a press conference alongside Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanack and other officials. “I also firmly believe that public safety is a shared responsibility and one that we cannot do alone.”
Mulvaney-Stanak praised Geraci as being a progressive-minded police leader.
“His professional philosophy draws from tenets of the [sic] 21st century policing and procedural justice, which centers on building trust, improving accountability, and strengthening community partnerships,” she said.
Among his accomplishments, Mulvaney-Stanak, a Progressive, said Geraci has boosted officer hiring, implemented initiatives that reduced gun violence, and replaced an “enforcement-heavy street crime unit” with one focused on community engagement.
Geraci began his career as a police officer in New York City for several years before moving to the Albany Police Department, where he worked for about 16 years. He briefly led the Watervliet Police Department, but was laid off in June 2020 due to financial constraints brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a local CBS affiliate.
Geraci then served as police chief in Newburgh, New York for nearly three years before leaving to work for the city’s school district. Shortly before he resigned as Newburgh’s police chief in 2024, three women at the department accused him of gender discrimination and creating a hostile work environment, News 12 reported. The internal investigation determined the allegations were unfounded.
Mulvaney-Stanak, at Monday’s press conference, said she took a close look at the discrimination complaint and how it was handled. She said that she talked to the city’s police commissioner at the time, who oversaw Geraci, and brought Geraci back for an additional interview about the issue.
“I had a lot of honest and direct conversations with Chief Geraci,” Mulvaney-Stanak said. “I am very confident in this chief. I am very confident in the values and the direction and the clarity he will bring to building an inclusive department.”
The two Democrats on the city council who voted against Geraci’s appointment cited the discrimination allegations as reasons why they didn’t support his nomination.
“I will not gamble with the stability of our department when we so desperately need to build a foundation of trust and I will not put the women at the department at risk,” said City Councilor Becca Brown McKnight during Monday night’s meeting. “The absence of answers is not the same thing as the absence of a problem.”
City Councilor Evan Litwin, who cast the second ‘no vote,’ also criticized the months-long hiring process, which he said wasn’t transparent.
“There was no opportunity for us to meet any of the finalists,” Litwin said. “I met Mr. Geraci for the first time about a week ago in a one-hour meeting with three other councilors.”
One of the most pressing issues for Geraci as he takes over the Burlington Police Department is staffing. Currently, there are 54 sworn officers at the department, lower than the levels recommended by studies and the department’s past leaders — and far below the city’s police force prior to a controversial council vote in 2020 that capped the size of the department. (Democrats on the council voted last year to remove that cap.)
Geraci said on Monday hiring more officers is one of his top priorities.
“Everyone has to be a recruiter every day,” he said. “Hire character over competence. We can train you to be a good police officer — I can’t train you to be a good person.”
The department has also struggled to retain a permanent leader since former Chief Brandan del Pozo resigned in 2019 after admitting he made a fake social media account to taunt a critic.
Interim Chief Shawn Burke came to the department last year after former chief Jon Murad decided not to seek reappointment. Murad spent most of his time leading the department as an interim after Progressives on the city council initially blocked his appointment.
Geraci’s appointment was a “welcome and extremely important milestone” in stabilizing the police department, said Padric Hartnett, president of the Burlington Police Officers Association.
“We look forward to working collaboratively with Chief Geraci as we focus on rebuilding our staffing levels, strengthening our agencies, and ensuring that the citizens of Burlington and the greater community receive the level of police services they expect and deserve,” Hartnett said on Monday.
Burke will remain at the department until March to help with “special assignments,” Mulvaney-Stanak said.
Geraci’s first day as chief is Tuesday. He told his new employees that he understood that the transition could be stressful.
“I've been in your position as a member of a police department with an outside police chief, outside the state coming in,” he said. “Please know that I'm committed to supporting you, and I see you, and I value the work that you do, and I look forward to working in partnership.”
