The recent revelations about the possible involvement of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in the illegal detainment of homeless people during the 2004 Fair St. Louis celebration, the admission by the police chief that the number and type of crimes committed in the city of St. Louis have been inaccurately reported to the FBI, and the report that the police department had engaged in Watergate-type spy operations by providing Downtown St. Louis Partnership with identity information gleaned from license plates of people helping to feed the homeless leave the EYE wondering whether the department should change its name to the Keystone Cops.
Even though all of these incidents occurred under his watch, Police Chief Joe Mokwa has amazingly escaped any criticism from anyone on the Board of Police Commissioners for all of these blatant misdeeds. The EYE may be missing something, but when a police department is admitting that it has fudged crime reports, is conducting illegal background checks for organizations, and has had its tactics of rounding up homeless people declared unconstitutional, somebody at the top needs to be held accountable.
After all, this is what Mayor Francis Slay announced when he ordered Director of Public Safety Paul Simon to conduct an investigation of the St. Louis Fire Department after a series of well-publicized injuries and the deaths of two firefighters in 2002 under the watch of Fire Chief Sherman George. At the time the EYE revealed that the investigation may have been politically motivated, because the number of accidents in the department actually had been reduced drastically during George’s tenure.
So, now inquiring EYES want to know why there have been no calls for an investigation of the police department by Slay or his fellow members of the Police Commission?
These embarrassing, even scandalous, incidents have been well-covered in the media. Mokwa has admitted that his department was wrong in conducting license checks of innocent citizens and has changed the way police reports are being filed. In contrast to this clear evidence of wrongdoing, only rumor and innuendo can be counted against how George has run the fire department. Is this seemingly disparate response to the two men just a tale of two chiefs, one white and one black?
