In January, the town of Richmond hired Anthony Cambridge to become its new police chief, and on March 3, Richmond's town manager announced they were backing out of the plan, refusing to comment on the rationale because it was a personnel matter.
Cambridge had been leading both Hinesburg and Richmond's police forces for the past two years.
He had resigned from his position as Hinesburg's police chief in order to take the Richmond job. But he faced scrutiny from officials on his way out for allegedly deleting security footage and shredding documents.
Cambridge has denied any wrongdoing.
开云体育's Mary Williams Engisch sat down with VTDigger reporter Corey McDonald to learn more. This interview was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We鈥檝e also provided a transcript, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Mary Williams Engisch: Can you quickly touch on the employment agreement that Anthony Cambridge had with Hinesburg and Richmond before he was going to formally become Richmond's new police chief?
Corey McDonald: Cambridge had been the chief of police in Hinesburg since 2019. Since then, he's been an advocate for regionalization 鈥� the sharing of services between towns. And both of these towns started to do so around 2023.
The two towns signed what is called an inter-municipal agreement, essentially sharing police and police chief services between the two towns. And so for about a year and a half now, Cambridge has effectively been the police chief of both towns, and police officers in Hinesburg and Richmond have essentially been policing both towns simultaneously.
Mary Williams Engisch: What allegedly occurred before Cambridge began what was supposed to be his new job in Richmond?
Corey McDonald: When he gives his resignation in early January, the feeling among town officials in Hinesburg is that not much is going to change. You know, we're really just reversing the relationship here.
In effect, Cambridge will still be the police chief for Hinesburg, but things start to go amiss, and the relationship takes a turn around mid-January.
Cambridge's last day with Hinesburg was originally set for Feb. 17, with a Feb. 18 start day with Richmond. But on Jan. 23, specifically, Cambridge abruptly gives his resignation, effective that day, and he tells the town that any more communication should go through his attorney.
Why that turn occurred is not entirely clear, but just based on internal communications we've seen via a records request, we see the town manager and police officers bringing up a lot of different issues.
There appear to be concerns around equipment and weapons that are being stored at his house. More specifically, there's a lot of messages showing police officers concerned that Cambridge was somehow privy to private conversations they had had in the department, that he perhaps was using Amazon and Ring devices he installed within the department to listen in on conversations.
Now, we don't we don't know if that's true. What we do know, though, is that Cambridge, in the days leading up to his abrupt resignation on Jan. 23, he was witnessed shredding documents, and he confirmed that he deleted four days worth of security footage in the days leading up to Jan. 23.
(Anthony) Cambridge, in the days leading up to his abrupt resignation on Jan. 23, he was witnessed shredding documents, and he confirmed that he deleted four days worth of security footage in the days leading up to Jan. 23.Corey McDonald, VTDigger
Mary Williams Engisch: Why did Cambridge say he took those actions?
Corey McDonald: He said he shredded documents because they contain personal information about members of the community, and he said that he erased footage because it was, quote, "previously mentioned that the cameras might be capturing images in parts of the building," and so he quote, "adjusted the retention time on the cameras to meet those concerns." He said that in a statement, and he hasn't really followed up on that yet.
Mary Williams Engisch: Can you say again who the officials were behind the allegations?
Corey McDonald: The figures primarily in the documents here are Hinesburg Town Manager Todd Odit, and then he's communicating with Brett Flansburg. He's an officer previously with the Hinesburg Police Department. He's since moved on to the Vergennes Police Department. And then Frank Bryan was an officer with the Hinesburg Police Department and is now the interim chief.
Mary Williams Engisch: How was Cambridge viewed in the community as Hinesburg's police chief, before all this went public?
Corey McDonald: I think he was very popular, and I think he still is in both communities. I think there has been a reaction in both Hinesburg and Richmond of general confusion about the situation, right? What exactly happened here? We're also seeing a lot of people in both towns say that, you know, this is some kind of personal vendetta against Cambridge, right? And, you know, of course, he's called this a smear campaign against him. And so, you know, I think that sentiment sort of exists in both communities.
There's a lot we don't know about their reasoning behind rescinding that employment offer.Corey McDonald, VTDigger
Mary Williams Engisch: As I mentioned at the top, Richmond revoked Cambridge's job offer this week after twice pushing back that start date. Can you explain how all of that played out?
Corey McDonald: He was initially supposed to start Feb. 18. That got pushed back a week to the following week. I think Feb. 25 is the exact date. We asked again whether he'd be starting, and it was again postponed. Then they rescinded their offer of employment. They haven't said much about why. They've cited their policy on personnel matters, so there's a lot we don't know about their reasoning behind rescinding that employment offer.
Mary Williams Engisch: Well, the million dollar question, what's next 鈥� both for the town of Richmond and Anthony Cambridge?
Corey McDonald: That's a good question. Todd Odit told me that, you know, the sort of plan was that things would be sort of the same moving forward, right? Cambridge would still be the police chief in Hinesburg. I think he told me something like, you know, we're probably going to have an interim chief for the foreseeable future. I think the same goes for Richmond.
Although, you know, Richmond the past couple years, the town's really had trouble finding and hiring police officers. They really have had a staff shortage in their department. So I don't really know what, what's in store for the Richmond Police Department at this point.
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