Alphabet soup.

A few years ago Vermont created special police units to investigate sex crimes and child abuse. "NUSI" stood for Northwest Unit for Special Investigations and was based in St. Albans. "CUSI" was Chittenden Unit for Special Investigations and was located in Burlington. 

Bennington had to take a different route with its acronym. It was Bennington Special Victims Unit (BSVU) because Bennington Unit for Special Investigations (BUSI) sounds a lot like "boozy." 

When writing news we try to avoid making "alphabet soup." "The SCOV's ruling on the DOC's handling of VCRs and VAPOs said the BPD was in violation of the ABCD..."

Bureaucracies love acronyms like birds love nests and it's confusing. Here are some common acronyms I run into when covering courts. 

VAPO: Violation of an Abuse Prevention Order. An Abuse Prevention Order (APO) is fancy talk for a restraining order. If someone is harassing you you can get a court order limiting their contact with you and if they violate the conditions of the order they can be charged with a crime which is the VAPO.

VCR: Violation of Conditions of Release. After a person is arraigned most times they are let out of court on conditions while their case is pending a resolution. These conditions can be light such as show up to court when you're supposed to, stay out of trouble, and let the court know your mailing address. They can also be restrictive and not allow defendants contact with certain people or keep  them under a 24-hour curfew. Violate these conditions and you can be charged with the crime "violation of conditions of release." On its own it's a fairly minor offense but you have to come to court again and more restrictive conditions can be put on you. Keep violating them and you can find yourself posting bail or being held in jail until the case resolves.

VOP: Violation of Probation: Think of it as an extended conditions of release that comes after a conviction, only it can include a person not following through on whatever program the court ordered the offender to complete. Not showing up to substance abuse counseling sessions, harassing the victim, being charged with more crimes, etc. 

P&P: Probation and Parole. These are field offices within the Department of Corrections (DOC). For whatever reason I rarely hear about parole matters. Mostly what I see is VOPs and furlough violations. Furlough is not the same as parole. This link from the DOC explains the difference.  


L&L: Lewd and Lascivious conduct. This can encompass everything from waiving your genitals at strangers to groping them. It's not as bad as sexual assault but it's still a serious felony. There's also Lewd and Lascivious Conduct with a Child which is even more serious.

ISAP and IDAP: Intensive Substance Abuse Program and Intensive Domestic Abuse Program respectively. Many sentences from plea agreements require offenders to complete "programming." Basically they're classes on how to not to do what you did to end up in the court system to begin with.

OC: This is more of a cop one. It stands for "Oleoresin Capsicum" or pepper spray. Mace, in other words although like Taser that's a brand name. I used to take issue with calling it "pepper spray" because I didn't think peppers were really involved but my research tells me they more or less are, so...

My limited experience covering schools leads me to believe the education system is worse when it comes to acronyms but that's another blog.