Mountain Times - Vol. 50, Number 2, Jan. 13-19, 2021

2 • LOCAL NEWS
The Mountain Times • Jan. 13-19, 2021
Mark Stockton takes the lead as new chair of Project VISION
By Emma Cotton/VTDigger
December’s Project VISION monthly meeting marked
the last for Joe Kraus, who has chaired the organization
since its inception in 2013.
Mark Stockton, CEO and founder of Stockton Security,
has succeeded Kraus in leading the coalition.
Project VISION was born out of concern about the
opioid crisis, which hit Rutland particularly hard in
2012. Residents came together, expressing outrage
and sorrow, after a driver high on drugs hit and killed
a 17-year-old girl. The organization has been credited
with making a measurable difference in the city, and it
has continued to expand, helping to reform neighborhoods
and lower crime statistics.
After serving in the Air Force, Stockton moved to
Rutland in 1982 from Pittsfield, Mass., and worked as
a security officer before starting Stockton Security.
He’s been an active member of Project VISION since
its early days.
We asked Stockton some questions about his background
and why Project VISION is so important to the
city and community today.
Q&A with Mark Stockton
VTDigger (VTD): You grew up in Massachusetts. How
did you come to find yourself in Rutland?
Mark Stockton (MS): In high school, in Pittsfield,
Mass., we came up here for a field trip to go cross-country
skiing. After high school, I stayed in Pittsfield, but I
would pop up in the summer. And then we had the [military]
draft. I didn’t want to go in the Army, so I enlisted in
the Air Force. Then, I came back to Pittsfield, and I took
the civil service exam, and I became a firefighter.
Fast-forward, I just needed a change. So I said, ‘What
about Rutland?’ I moved up here in ’82. I worked for a
couple of big construction companies here. And I met
my lovely wife. When we first met, she probably thought
I was the biggest idiot on two feet, but here we are, 38
Submitted
Mark Stockton, right, Project VISION’s new leader, stands alongside executive director Matt Prouty at the organization’s
center in the Rutland Police Department.
years later. We have three children, all grown.
I think it was just a lifestyle for me at the time. I found
it to be a little more relaxed, going from a larger community.
Something catches your eye, you’re not quite
sure what it is. And look, it’s not a utopia, but at the same
time, I think it’s a place where you can grow.
VTD: How did Stockton Security come to be?
MS: I like to walk around, to meet and greet people.
During the summer, you go downtown on Center
Street, and it’s booming. There was another security
company in town, and someone looked out the window
and asked, ‘Who’s that?’ Somebody knew who I
was, and they asked if I would be interested in becoming
a security officer.
So I started working for this company for a while, and
I did an exploratory to see what it would encompass to
be a security agency. You have to show you’ve completed
3,000 hours of security and investigative work.
Step by step, little by little, we started the agency. We
started our business with $1,000, that’s it. Here we are, 21
years this April, and Stockton Security is self-sufficient.
We put everything back in. That’s why we keep the employees
that we have. Half-dozen or more have gone on
to the police department, and we had two that went on
to U.S. Border Patrol.
One of our clients is the downtown plaza. We have government
contracts; we have ski areas, like Okemo. We have
private clients. We have a variety of different places around
Rutland, and we’re licensed for the whole state of Vermont.
Stockton > 14