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Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison outlines staffing, flood response and tech responsibilities during reconfirmation hearing
Summary
Jennifer Morrison, Vermont's commissioner of public safety, appeared before the Senate Transportation Committee to discuss her background, department responsibilities, pandemic- and flood-era operational strains, staffing and a preferred organizational change to designate public safety as an agency.
Jennifer Morrison, commissioner of public safety, appeared before the Senate Transportation Committee and said she was present to seek reconfirmation and to summarize the department’s functions and recent challenges.
“My name is Jennifer Morrison. I'm your commissioner of public safety, and I believe I'm here to seek a reconfirmation,” Morrison said at the start of her remarks.
Morrison described her law‑enforcement background, her return to state-level public safety work and the department’s scale and responsibilities. She said the department employs roughly 605 full‑time staff and about 200 part‑time personnel across a range of functions, including the Vermont State Police, fire-safety, the Vermont Crime Information Center, the Vermont Forensic Lab and the state radio technology shop.
“We are 605, full time employees and 200 part time employees, across a whole range of roles,” Morrison said. She told senators that much of her tenure has been consumed by response and recovery from major flooding events in 2023 and 2024 and by ongoing efforts to stabilize staffing in the Vermont State Police. Morrison said the emergency-management team and other units have been heavily engaged in repeated disaster work.
Morrison described administrative actions taken to address workforce strain, including civilianizing 12 positions previously performed by sworn personnel. She also described the department’s role as the pass‑through for federal disaster funding (FEMA) and other grant streams that support state and local recovery operations.
Organizational request: Morrison said she supports a change that would flip the department to an agency within state government—what she described as an executive-order‑level change that would recognize the size and mission of public safety. “We would like to be flipped to an agency because it is appropriate,” she told senators, and she asked legislators to consider a bill that would mirror the executive order.
Technology and communications: Morrison told senators the department manages statewide land mobile radio infrastructure through its radio technology shop, participates in emergency communications with public safety answering points (PSAPs) and supports technology‑dependent criminal investigations. She described partnerships with other state IT entities and noted the department’s statewide dispatch and PSAP roles.
Why it matters: Morrison’s testimony covered operational capacity and disaster recovery responsibilities that affect state readiness, grant administration and local emergency services. Senators pressed for clarifications on organizational structure and on the breadth of the department’s responsibilities; Morrison said she had recently been reelected to the executive committee of a national homeland-security body and argued that the department’s mission warranted agency status.
No formal confirmation vote was recorded during the session; the committee indicated it planned additional consideration of certain appointments at upcoming meetings.
