Lt. Tara Thomas promoted to commander of Williston state police field station

September 4, 2021  |  By Vermont State Police 

Lt. Tara Thomas is the new commander at the Vermont State Police Williston Field Station. VSP photo

Col. Matthew T. Birmingham, director of the Vermont State Police, recently announced the transfer of Lt. Tara Thomas to commander of the Williston Field Station.

The transfer was effective Aug. 29. Thomas' previous assignment was executive officer of Special Operations. 

A former Duxbury resident, Thomas has been with the Vermont State Police for more than 22 years, starting her career in 1999 as a trooper at the Middlesex barracks. She was promoted to sergeant in 2008 as the agency’s public information officer. In 2010 she returned to the Middlesex barracks as a detective sergeant with the Bureau of Criminal Investigations. 

She joined the Traffic Safety Division (now known as Special Operations) in March 2018 and was promoted to lieutenant and commander of the Safety Programs Unit in December 2018. As the executive officer of Special Operations her responsibilities included overseeing traffic safety programs, the department’s full-time crash reconstruction experts, recreation enforcement, the K-9 Unit commander, the special teams’ liaison. 

Thomas also has served on the Vermont State Police Crisis Negotiation Unit and was a member of the Crime Scene Search Team.

Her new role as field station commander is responsible for overseeing law enforcement services to the communities patrolled by that station’s troopers. Field station commanders are the local representative of the Vermont State Police to the community they serve. They work with local officials and residents to address public safety and law enforcement concerns in their service areas.

The Williston Barracks provides police coverage throughout Chittenden and Lamoille counties. In Chittenden County, troopers provide primary law enforcement services for the Bolton, Buels Gore, Charlotte, Huntington, Jericho, St. George, Underhill, and Westford. The station also provides assistance as requested to local police departments including Burlington, Colchester, Essex, Hinesburg, Milton, Richmond, Shelburne, South Burlington, Williston, and Winooski, along with the Chittenden County Sheriff’s Department and the University of Vermont Police Department. Troopers from the Williston Barracks patrol 40 miles of interstate highways within Chittenden County.

The Williston barracks also oversees an outpost office in Cambridge that is responsible for police coverage in the Lamoille County communities of Belvidere, Cambridge, Eden, Elmore, and Waterville. Troopers also provide assistance as requested to area law enforcement agencies including the Morristown and Stowe police departments and the Lamoille County Sheriff’s Department.

Lt. Robert J. Lucas previously led the Williston barracks. Vermont State Police photo

The barracks also is home to the Vermont State Police Special Operations and the Northern Vermont Public Safety Answering Point, a key dispatch communications center for first responders. Many state police special teams vehicles are housed at this barracks.

Thomas succeeds Lt. Robert J. Lucas, who is retiring in early 2022. Lucas also moved up through the ranks from the Middlesex barracks. 

Sgt. Paul Ravelin has replaced Thomas as acting Special Operations executive officer.