It has always been Leftist, but it began to change after 2000.
I became more and more extreme leftist to the point it was in your face no matter where you went. And the town became scummier. Think of San Francisco in a small scale.
Needless to say, we don't go there anymore.
The linked article said:
"...For now, the Burlington Police Department has incident data for 2021, which show that the total number of incidents fell by 11 percent in the first 11 months of the year compared to the same period last year. Certain types of incidents did become more common, however, including burglary, vehicle thefts and mental health issues and overdoses..."
The article also said they only had five officers to patrol at night. This is a college town, and is bigger than they let on due to the college population which isn't counted in their population of 45,000. Probably another 15,000 I would guess.
Five police patrolling seems crazy, but...I don't know. Others who have worked in Law Enforcement might know these types of levels better.
If they say in the article that incidents reported dropped by 11%, I bet they could get that number even lower by getting rid of more police officers. Hey, the problems aren't going away, but with nobody to report them or respond to them...
"Most violent and property crimes in the U.S. are not reported to police, and most of the crimes that are reported are not solved." https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/20/facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/
The exceptions are homicides (because it's hard to hide bodies) and car thefts (because insurance companies require a police report).