On Tuesday, around the time that the 90th person was killed in the city of St. Louis this year, a precinct full of police officers took roll call at a nearby city intersection, instead of at the station.
The killing on Tuesday and the alarming now 90-plus homicides in the city of St. Louis in 2008 are why the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has formed the Homicide Deterrence Initiative.
According to the department, the street roll call is just one part of the HDI. High-crime neighborhoods will be saturated with police, a command van will be posted, curfews will be strictly enforced, and intelligence will be gathered continually.
The HDI includes officers from the 6th, 7th and 8th District (North Patrol), including Canine, Crime Suppression Unit, Intelligence Division/Gang Unit, Juvenile, Mobile Reserve, Most Violent Offenders Unit, Narcotics, Problem Properties and Traffic Safety.
The initiative is also receiving assistance from the U.S. Marshals and the Missouri Department of Probation and Parole.
The department is first targeting two areas of the city, which comprise 12 neighborhoods notorious for violent crimes. Of the 91 deaths in the city in 2007, 21 took place in those neighborhoods.
They are: Penrose, Penrose Park, Mark Twain/I-70 Industrial, Mark Twain, Walnut Park, Wells-Goodfellow, Academy, Kingsway East, Fountain Park, Kingsway West, The Greater Ville and Hamilton Heights.
Anyone with a violent record and outstanding warrants or who have leadership roles in gangs or other continuous criminal activity will be picked up by police.
“We want to do two things: stabilize those neighborhoods and surgically remove those people that need to be removed from the city because of their violent histories,” Police Chief Joe Mokwa said at a press conference Tuesday, just before about 40 City cops took roll call at the corner of Enright and Academy.
“It’s confidence-inspiring to see officers doing roll call in front of places that are problematic,” Mokwa said. He told officers, “Make sure the good people see us and the bad people feel us.”
Three black men watching the roll call weren’t impressed and called the effort political. However, they were in agreement with some of what Mokwa said.
“You come incarcerate my people with the same ones the system make sure have drugs, no job or nothing positive to gravitate to, and take them back to the community and then tell them they have to go,” a man named Herb said.
“They are just cleaning up for the new businesses and the election coming; they care about the area – not the people,” Herb said. “When new people and businesses come – the killings and drugs will go away.”
Mario, looking on with Herb, said more marches and substations would help.
An 81-year-old man sitting on his front porch on Enright said he felt safe seeing the officers.
“It makes me feel good because I can sit on my front porch now and not worry about the drugs and guns,” said Floyd Grimes, who has lived there since 1970.
“It’s pitiful what’s going on out here, so I’m glad to see the police.”
Since the initiative started on July 10, more than 90 arrests have been made, 14 guns recovered, with an additional 31 arrests by U.S. Marshals.
The man killed at the time of the roll call on Tuesday was the first person killed in the targeted areas since the program was instituted.
“You have to take (entrenched criminals) out of the neighborhoods, and it will have a resounding effect,” Mokwa said.
“By going to the streets, we’re sending a strong message that we are going to use every resource to stabilize this city, the neighborhoods, and make a better quality of life for the people who live here,” Mokwa said.
Many of the shooting and killings are gang-related, but Mokwa said there isn’t an all-out gang war, rather gang members and other violence-prone individuals having altercations over things like “girlfriends and disrespect.”
Mokwa also pointed to more foundational issues that result in crime, naming unemployment, underemployment and poor education.
“Hopeless people need a sense of hope and belief that there’s someone here for them,” Mokwa said.
