Black men and women (of any background) who work for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department are systemically discriminated against and met with retaliation if they blow the whistle, according to Lynda Anderson, a former civilian employee relations/equal opportunity specialist for the department.
Anderson said she was harassed and subsequently fired in October 2008 for forthrightly investigating claims of discrimination. Anderson, a communications professor at a local community college, said poor grammar and writing skills were cited for her dismissal.
Another former employee, Angelia Kenner, once a watch commander, said she was run out of the department because she is the sister of a former high-ranking female officer who settled a discrimination suit against the department in 2004.
Yesterday Anderson and Kenner, and their attorneys announced a formal complaint with the U.S. Justice Department. A formal investigation is not underway, however.
Anderson said her superiors, including former police chief Joe Mokwa and Human Resource directors, often asked her to change her EEOC reports to remove the appearance of wrongdoing.
“I was often questioned and asked to tone my reports down,” Anderson said.
When Dan Isom became police chief following Mokwa’s resignation, he soon eliminated the position of employee relations/EEOC officer. He said there were not enough complaints to justify it in the budget.
Anderson said she got a complaint just about every day.
“Some numbers I didn’t keep because some people would just want to come in and talk and get it resolved with their supervisor, because they knew that once their name came out as being in my office they were subject to retaliation,” she said.
Isom changed policy so that internal discrimination cases initially would be investigated by Internal Affairs, which then forwards cases to an outside, independent agency, which makes recommendations then sends them back to HR.
That way the case can’t be tainted, Isom said.
Anderson doesn’t think so.
“HR is the culprit – they are ones that change the investigation,” Anderson said.
“They should just let a person do their job and listen to the concerns – as I’ve said for five years – and do something about them, try to make the wrongs right, but they never do,” Anderson said.
Kenner, who had been a department employee for 25 years, said she was accused of falling asleep while serving as watch commander of the 9th District.
Kenner said the claim was untrue. She said she has an illness that keeps her from being able to stay asleep because her breathing stops, causing her to awaken.
“They just wanted to get rid of me because my sister had filed discrimination against them and they want to get rid of anybody who might do that,” Kenner said.
In a statement Isom said, “We can say the actual matters that led to the departure of these two employees were legitimate and not retaliatory.”
Anderson’s attorneys Eric Vickers and Albert Watkins said they would rather see the department or the police commissioners rectify the claims, but haven’t gotten a response.
The wrote a letter to the police commissioners – including Mayor Francis G. Slay – in January and to Isom on February 9.
The attorneys said the next step is a formal lawsuit in the circuit court.