The St. Louis County Police Department must now undergo an independent review from an outside consultant, after the Board of Police Commissioners voted unanimously on Tuesday, October 29 to initiate the review.
The announcement comes on the heels of a nearly $20 million verdict against the police department in a discrimination lawsuit by a gay officer. Soon after the October 25 verdict, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page and several County Council members called for a change in police commissioners ― who are charged with reviewing police department policies and appointing the St. Louis County police chief. Councilwoman Lisa Clancy called for Belmar to resign.
Board chairman Roland Corvington resigned on Monday, October 28.
“A fresh perspective at the top is vital to the success of our police department in St. Louis County,” Page told media after the St. Louis County Council meeting on October 29. “I’ve been working for weeks to identify potential members of the board of commissioners of the police department. And I’ve been talking with Chief Belmar about his future and how these changes might fit into his plans. Serious change is needed to promote equity and inclusion in county government and throughout St. Louis County.”
The outside consultant will review the department’s policies and procedures, the decision-making and promotional processes, and inclusion within the department, according to a statement from the commissioners.
“The Board of Police Commissioners will be coordinating with the St. Louis County Counselor’s Office to identify the most appropriate and capable entity to undertake this task,” the board stated.
Once the entity has been hired, the goal will be for a report to be completed within 90 days and made public, according to the board.
“An independent review is long overdue,” said John Chasnoff, co-founder of the Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression (CAPCR). “However, the community should insist that they have input into this review and that there be a process designed to gather their input.”
Brother Anthony Shahid, a longtime activist, attended the County Council meeting on Tuesday night and took a knee before the council with his fist raised in the air. He was there to demand the firing of a white county officer who pulled over a 63-year-old African-American woman at 2 a.m. in April and allegedly inappropriately searched her. Lillison Williams is the wife of a retired police officer, and she was heading home after visiting her son in the hospital.
“I look at that as a white man doing what he wants to a black women during slavery,” Shahid said. “He didn’t call another female officer. Why would you search a woman alone at 2 in the morning? It’s an assault on black women, not just black men, and it’s getting worse. This is a culture.”
Shahid also said that the independent review must include a look at this kind of discrimination in the community.
The Ethical Society of Police (ESOP), a police association that advocates for racial equity in policing, told The St. Louis American that it is “extremely optimistic” with the changes to the police commissioners and the independent review of the department. ESOP is comprised of about 80 county police officers and 260 officers from the City of St. Louis.
“The ESOP has communicated recommendations for mitigating disparate treatment and discriminatory practices within the department to the Board of Police Commissioners and Chief Belmar for over a year with no movement,” according to the statement. “At least now, there is a glimmer of hope that progress will be made in this arena.”
ESOP hopes that the review team will be diverse and “possess the appropriate level of cultural competency to go beyond the surface level of existing barriers that has kept the department’s minority representation less than that of the county’s population.”
Last week, a circuit court judge sided with Sgt. Keith Wildhaber, who began working for the county police department in 1994, in his claim that he had been repeatedly passed up for promotions because he is gay. The lawsuit he filed in January 2017 documented a conversation between him and former police commissioner John Saracino at his restaurant Bartolino’s. Saracino allegedly told Wildhaber that “the command staff has a problem with your sexuality. If you ever want to see a white shirt [i.e. get a promotion], you should tone down your gayness.”
