Black police officers in St. Louis called for Police Chief Sam Dotson to resign at a public forum on July 7, citing disparities in promotions and discipline documented in their recent study.
“We felt like we had no other way to get people in this community to listen,” said Homicide Unit Sgt. Heather Taylor, president of the Ethical Society of Police, which consists of about 200 predominately African-American officers.
This week, the society handed over a 112-page evaluation of the Metropolitan Police Department to city aldermen, the mayor and some administrators. The report was leaked to the New York Daily News, where columnist Shaun King pointed out a simple fact St. Louisans take for granted that was shocking to many around the country.
“St. Louis is one of those cities with segregated police unions where African-American officers felt like they had to form their own separate organization in order for their concerns and needs to be addressed,” King wrote.
The society’s report shows that black officers represent 34 percent of the force and about 24 percent of commanders, as of data compiled on February 15.
“Cronyism, favoritism, and other biases have continued under Chief Dotson’s leadership, but have existed for decades under various leaders within SLMPD,” the report states.
Some internal practices and the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) have also played into excluding qualified officers in promotions, the report states.
“This exclusion is seen in the lack of African-American commanders and African-American officers in coveted specialized units,” it states.
The gravest disparities exist regarding discipline, according to the report, which details several cases where black officers allegedly were disciplined more severely than white officers for lesser offenses. “Discipline should never vary along racial lines, or with internal affiliation,” it states. “However, this does not appear to be the case within SLMPD.”
Taylor said at the forum, “Any time you have an officer being investigated for murder who is given 30 days and allowed to resign, and we have an officer who was suspended essentially for a fist bump, there’s a problem here.”
While the organization acknowledged that Dotson didn’t start the department’s disparate treatment, he has been resistant to working with the group for change, they said. And that affects the community’s wellbeing.
“We are constantly rolling for our community,” Lt. Cheryl Orange said at the forum, held at the Northside Community Center at 5939 West Florissant Ave. “And that’s why we are here, so you can know the injustices that we face on the inside. Until that is cleaned up on the inside, we can never police on the outside.”
Dotson told St. Louis Public Radio that he will not step down.
“That would mean that I have failed, or that I’m not capable of doing the job,” he said.
He said the department’s relatively diverse force is an example that some things are working.
However, Taylor said after the society announced a vote of “no confidence” for Dotson in December, they have had several conversations with the chief – both using mediators and alone – on improving the department’s weaknesses and their ideas have been not been taken seriously.
About 250 people attended the forum. It was the first in a series of forums that the Ethical Society will hold with the Firefighters Institute for Racial Equality (FIRE), which represents black firefighters.
“We have problems as well,” said Capt. Abram Pruitt, the president of FIRE. “They affect you directly as well.”
The discipline panel’s membership for firefighters is 95 percent white, and the testing for new recruits and promotions has long been criticized for being racially biased towards aiding white candidates, he said.
The six-member panel of officers, firefighters and activists talked about solutions to the problem. Longtime activist Percy Green II said that residents need to be more active voters. Many elected officials and August primary candidates in the room nodded their heads in agreement.
Green said, “We should be as quick to vote as we are to say our prayers at night.”
