Though several black St. Louis County police officers have filed complaints and lawsuits regarding discrimination within the department, Police Chief Jon Belmar has refused to sign an agreement with a police organization that would help represent minority officers in such cases.
The Ethical Society of Police has represented minority (and some white) officers in the City of St. Louis since 1972, and this summer it established a chapter in the county. So far, about 60 members have joined. But Belmar stated that he will not sign a memorandum of agreement recognizing the organization because the department already has an exclusive collective bargaining agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), in a Nov. 1 letter to the Ethical Society.
However, the organization is not seeking collective bargaining rights, just a seat at the table in decision-making, said Sgt. Heather Taylor, president of the Ethical Society Police and a homicide detective in St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.
“They don’t want us there because they know we will be vocal, and we have facts that the police department is covering up corruption,” Taylor said. “Most police departments don’t want that. That’s what it’s really about.”
In response to ESOP’s claims, a spokesman for Belmar provided the text of his Nov. 1 response declining ESOP’s proposed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). While thanking ESOP for its help “in recruitment and community engagement,” Belmar stated that the FOP was the state-certified bargaining unit for department personnel.
Taylor said ESOP doesn’t have a written agreement with the city police department because they already have a well-established working relationship with the police union and director of personnel. She said it became apparent that they would need an agreement in the county when even small requests were met with resistance and communication became irregular.
About 20 elected officials, members of the clergy and former police officers spoke at the St. Louis County Council meeting on Tuesday, November 13 to demand that Belmar sign the agreement. Neither Belmar nor County Executive Steve Stenger was present.
Council members Hazel Erby and Rochelle Walton Gray voiced their support and vowed to set up a meeting where Belmar would answer to council members about his lack of support for ESOP, Erby said.
“It’s a serious matter,” Erby told The American. “I am aware of the retaliation against police officers who spoke up in support of Nikki Brown. I think we need to get it done right away.”
Former county officer Nikki Brown recently left the department because she was experiencing racial and sexual bias, she claimed. She was a member of the county’s police union, FOP Lodge 111. However, when Brown filed an equal employment opportunity complaint with the Missouri Human Rights Commission, Brown didn’t feel that she would receive fair legal representation from the FOP, who was also representing the other side, Taylor said.
“African Americans reached out to us and said, ‘We need help,’” Taylor said. “They reached out for a reason.”
Taylor said that Belmar and the five-member St. Louis County Board of Police Commissioners are ignoring the fact that the department has problems with racial issues.
The American spoke with police commission chair Roland Corvington, who is African-American, and asked him if he was concerned about inclusion and diversity in the department.
Corvington responded, “I think over the past years, Chief Belmar has demonstrated his support for diversity and inclusion within the police department and in terms of community engagement.”
The American told Corvington that minority officers have stated that they are being ignored and fear they will be retaliated against for joining ESOP.
“I would beg to differ,” Corvington said. “They are not being ignored, nor will they be retaliated against.”
When asked if he was personally supportive of signing an agreement, he said, “The FOP is the exclusive bargaining agent, and we will continue our relationship with the Ethical Society of Police absent of an MOU.”
Erby noted that the five-member police commission, appointed by the county executive, recently started identifying itself as a “civilian oversight board.” Erby said it’s misleading and the board only started using the terminology after the community started asking for an independent civilian oversight board that would be critical of police work.
“That ‘citizen oversight board’ never said a word to address what was going on in Ferguson,” Erby said of the commission.
ESOP is asking all regional police officers, city and county, to rescind their union membership until the county police department signs a formal agreement recognizing the existence of ESOP as a local association of police officers.
Taylor said that minority county officers don’t just have a fear of retaliation for joining the Ethical Society. “It’s a reality of retaliation,” she said. “They are already being targeted.”
