The St. Louis County Police Department must take immediate steps to address racial equity and transparency, wrote Police Commissioner Dr. L.J. Punch to Chief Mary Barton in a July 28 letter.
“I am extremely concerned for the community,” Punch told the chief. “I am not sure you have embraced the depth of pain the community is experiencing right now around racial injustice. I do not believe you have recognized the impact of your statement in front of the county council nor the impact of the ongoing inaction in areas of racial equity. I am writing to you with this list of right now real changes that can be put into place to bring the department forward.”
The letter outlines action steps in these six areas of concern: training, diversity and inclusion, transparency, evaluation, use of force and protests.
In each of these areas, Punch proposed policy changes with input from civilians and law enforcement, including the Ethical Society of Police (ESOP). Punch worked on the document for more than three weeks, the letter states.
During the Aug. 18 Police Board of Commissioners meeting, police division heads responded to each of the areas of concern in Punch’s letter, but the Zoom audio was so poor that the public could not hear the responses.
“No one is more disappointed in the poor quality of yesterday’s meeting than us,” said Sgt. Benjamin Granda, spokesman for the police department. “The information provided was exceptional, and it is very frustrating that so much of it was not absorbed.”
In the meeting, Barton said there would be a summary of the responses available at the next board meeting, Punch told the American.
“I’m looking forward to seeing that,” Punch said.
Heather Taylor, president of ESOP, said all of Punch’s points in the letter were “great.”
“It was an important step for someone on the Board of Police Commissioners to do that because they have never done that,” Taylor said. “I appreciate that L.J. did this and had experts in each area come in to talk about it. It’s sad that it didn’t come through, and that their audio is so terrible all of the sudden.”
The American has requested interviews with all of the police division heads that spoke at the board meeting, including the police chief. So far, the American was able to speak with Granda about the transparency section of the letter, which reads:
“The board meetings and minutes should be posted to an easily accessible webpage and not via request for records as is stated in the policy. This webpage should include postings on crime statistics and arrests as are reported to the board and should occur in monthly updates. This should also include a publicly accessible use of force database, in alignment with the recent report by Homegrown STL.”
On June 25, State Rep. Kevin Windham (D-St. Louis County) wrote a letter to the commissioners stating that there had not been any meeting minutes posted to the commissioners’ website since April 22 and there were no videos posted, except for the listening sessions to select the police chief. The minutes are now available online.
Granda said they are being posted after the board approves them at the following meetings, and the board meeting videos are posted to the same webpage by the end of the day. Granda agrees with Punch that the crime statistics given to the board should be made available to the public and details about how to do that will be discussed among the board members.
The third request on a use-of-force database is tricker, he said, because information may be part of pending litigation and other legal barriers, but the board will discuss this as well. Overall, Granda is in favor of providing the public with more information.
“The more people know and understand our department, generally people feel more favorably about it,” Granda said.
In the letter’s conclusion, Punch summarized the action steps proposed in one, long sentence:
“I call for immediate actions to be taken in the above said areas to reform the academy, bring equity to the recruiting and hiring process, hire a civilian expert in diversity, equity and inclusion for the department, create a new web interface, engage in a re-evaluation by the CPE if possible, create a community driven initiative for business leaders to contribute to more equitable policing practices including a publicly accessible use of force review, engagement with policy and practice in the LGBTQIA community, the substantial investment into non-police supports for social and mental health emergencies, and for the department, and the creation of a civilian review board.”
Click here to read Punch’s full letter to Barton. The American will continue to report on the responses to different sections of the letter.
