After decades of “fleece force” policing in St. Louis County, a new proposal is attempting to bring some uniformity to the region’s fragmented and inconsistent policing tactics.
St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger introduced legislation Wednesday, October 21 that would require all 57 St. Louis County municipal police departments to meet uniform training standards.
Last year, the greater St. Louis area erupted in civil unrest after a white police officer fatally shot Michael Brown Jr., an unarmed black teenager. The unrest prompted the Justice Department and outside research groups to start probing policing practices in the region, and the results were not encouraging.
The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) found last year that fragmentation makes the police departments “inefficient, undermines police operations, and makes it difficult to form effective law enforcement.” A majority of the 57 municipal police departments patrol an area of less than one square mile.
The legislation requires all departments to establish use-of-force policies and to make them available to the public. It would require officers to graduate from a Peace Officer Standards and Training-approved center. Other standards include background checks on all new hires and compliance with state laws on reporting traffic-stop information. The bill also stipulates that departments should be able to accept and bond-out prisoners 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Chuck Wexler of PERF told The American his group found that agencies “were not thoroughly checking the backgrounds of officers who were getting hired in the county. So just requiring a professional background investigation and utilization of a licensed clinical psychologist will help to weed out problematic officers.”
Stenger said at a press conference on October 21 that his goal is to make sure all residents have equal access to consistent, high-quality law enforcement. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar stood next to Stenger, showing his support.
“This has been a long time coming,” Belmar said.
Normandy Police Chief Frank Mininni, whose department got certified this month, said his department is already following the bill’s requirements.
“I would’ve stood next to Stenger during the press conference. This is the stuff we’ve been talking about for the last six years,” Mininni said. “It’s long overdue.”
Under the bill, Stenger said the county would effectively have to approve a city providing police protection for other cities. Stenger said the county charter and state law enable this binding legislation.
“The charter of St. Louis County says that we can legislate countywide into the municipalities when it relates to public health,” Stenger said. “And there is perhaps no other issue that relates more directly to public health than law enforcement.”
The Municipal League, meanwhile, is pushing back. First it asked the council to ignore the proposal, saying it should have been consulted, reported St. Louis Public Radio. On Tuesday, October 27, Municipal League Executive Director Pat Kell met privately with Stenger, according to St. Louis Public Radio.
Ironically, given that Better Together St. Louis contracted with PERF to crunch and analyze the data on fragmented, unprofessional policing in the county, Kell told St. Louis Public Radio that the county and municipalities have to approach police reform “together.”
“To move to this next step and look internally at our police departments is only a good thing for the communities and a good thing for the public,” Kelly said. “So we are behind doing that. Our police chiefs are behind doing that. But we need to do it working together.”
This story is published as part of a partnership between the St. Louis American and the Huffington Post.
