It’s troubling but in no way surprising to see federal agents wearing face masks while they round up people who have a legal right to live in the U.S. That’s what wannabe authoritarian regimes such as the Trump administration do.

But local and state police officers who mask-up while carrying out their duties in a quiet residential neighborhood?

That’s just as unsettling, and equally uncalled for.

On June 20, masked officers from the Vermont Drug Task Force descended upon the Victory Circle neighborhood in Hartford during its investigation into an alleged drug trafficker. The task force is made up of state police troopers, municipal cops from across the state and officers from federal agencies.

Adam Silverman, spokesman for Vermont State Police, told me that having drug task force members wear face coverings during an operation is nothing new.

Undercover officers “alter their appearance and can use a fictitious persona when carrying out sensitive, covert drug investigations,” Silverman said via email. “When these investigators move from typical covert duties into carrying out an overt operation, concealing their appearance is vital to their safety and to their continuing undercover work.”

It sounds all very Miami Vice-like except with maple trees.

The nine-page affidavit in the Hartford case includes the names of a dozen officers on the scene when the Victory Circle search warrant was executed.

The affidavit identifies members of another special squad — the Vermont State Police Narcotics Investigation Unit. Ten state police detectives of various ranks assigned to the drug task force are also members of the narcotics investigation unit, Silverman said.

The cloak-and-dagger games that cops like to play by hiding behind masks comes at a cost. Accountability to the public is lost.

This week, I asked the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont to weigh in on the issue. “Trust between police and the people they serve is vital to fostering true community safety — and in recent years, Vermont law enforcement leaders have stated a desire to build meaningful relationships with the broader public,” Lia Ernst, the ACLU’s legal director, responded in an email. “But the decision to use facial coverings to hide officers’ identities during routine encounters undermines this worthy goal.”

After the Hartford drug bust, Silverman stressed that unlike federal agents who are hunting (my word, not his) law-abiding immigrants, Vermont’s masked officers “wear police identification and will provide their names and badge numbers when asked.”

Sure. Any bets on how many people feel comfortable walking up to an armed, hooded cop to demand his personal information. Masks are intimidating, which is a reason why cops don them in the first place.

In a Google search of officers named in the Hartford affidavit, I came across a photo of a state trooper who was part of the state’s narcotics investigation unit — and perhaps the drug task force.

The head shot, courtesy of Vermont State Police, appeared on VTDigger’s news website after the trooper was charged in 2022 with “reckless endangerment,” a misdemeanor, while on duty.

He was one of two troopers accused of using excessive force during an incident in Newfane, Vt. A 61-year-old man suffered a serious head injury after state police fired a beanbag-style projectile at him and he fell from a porch roof. The case was resolved last year when the troopers agreed to enter a pretrial court diversion program.

This week, I walked around the horseshoe-shaped neighborhood of Victory Circle, an assortment of well-kept homes with freshly-mowed lawns, gardens and shade trees.

I let residents know that I wouldn’t be using their names so they could speak freely about police tactics.

It’s hard to “trust people in masks,” a homeowner said. “You’re not sure who these people are. Police officers need to be responsible and accountable to their community.”

Another resident argued that it should be illegal for law enforcement officers to wear masks to protect their identity. The practice is “totally creepy,” she said.

(In California, proposed legislation, known as the “No Secret Police Act,” would bar police from wearing masks when dealing with the public.)

A Victory Circle homeowner told me that he “called the cops on the cops” that night to complain about the ruckus they had created. At around 2 a.m., officers were apparently using a sledge hammer to break open a safe, which was found to include a handgun, cocaine and cash, according to the affidavit.

I talked with one neighbor who was more sympathetic to masked officers. “I don’t have an issue with it, but maybe I watch too many crime shows,” he said.

Another resident pointed out that if they were worried about their cover being blown, drug task force officers could have skipped the home search.

By the time a dozen officers flocked to the suspect’s house near midnight on June 20, he was already in police custody. Hartford police had arrested Rahm Klampert, 45, eight hours earlier on a domestic assault charge.

Klampert, who faces felony charges involving possession and intent to sell fentanyl, meth and cocaine, is being held on $100,000 bail at the Southern Vermont Correctional Facility in Springfield.

Windsor County State’s Attorney Ward Goodenough touted Klampert’s arrest as “one of the larger drug busts in Hartford and Windsor County history.”

I’ll be curious to see what happens if the case goes to trial and any of the drug task force officers are called to testify in open court.

Unmasked, of course. Which is the way it should always be with police.

Jim Kenyon can be reached at jkenyon@vnews.com.