SLCPA survey shows morale is low among department employees
Morale is low.
That’s one of the biggest takeaways from a St. Louis County Police Association (SLCPA) survey distributed to the organization’s members to determine what issues were on police employee’s minds.
The findings were presented to Chief May Barton and the Board of Police Commissioners last week, and SLCPA Executive Director Joe Patterson said the union urged both Barton and the commissioners to respond in due time.
Patterson noted that while there were a group of members calling for a vote of no confidence in Barton, they did not constitute a majority — thus a vote was not taken.
“There’s no general time frame,” he said, “I think what we would do is give the leadership of the police department and the Board of Police Commissioners an opportunity to address these issues. And then, if an appropriate amount of time passes and we don’t feel the issues were addressed, we would explore [a vote] as a next possible step.”
Only 22% of the SLCPA survey respondents agreed that their morale is high.
Both the Ethical Society of Police board and the St. Louis County Council voted in April and declared no confidence in Barton.
Just more than 500 SLCPA members completed the survey, which presented eight statements and solicited a Likert scale response (five options ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree). The St. Louis County Police Department employs approximately 1,015 officers and 328 staff members — all are eligible to join the SLCPA, which currently has 915 members.
Only 22 percent of respondents agreed that their morale is high, and 90 percent of respondents believe that transfers are used within the department as a type of informal discipline.
In addition, approximately 66 percent of respondents do not believe that discipline is administered in a fair and equal manner.
“There is an overall feeling that if the department leadership can’t formally discipline an employee for an action, they’ll give them what we call a geography lesson — meaning that they’ll be transferred from the precinct they work in currently to another area that might be far from their home,” Patterson said, noting SLCPA leaders believes it happens to officers of all races and identities
Patterson said the most recent high-profile incident of this was the transfer of Officer Shanette Hall, although Patterson said he did not know enough to comment on that specific situation.
Hall, who is Black, was reassigned from her human resources role recruiting officers — including minority officers — to a patrol position in a different precinct with a predominately white staff. This happened one day after a Vice video was released featuring her and other female officers discussing police culture.
In a recent interview with the American prior to the release of these survey results, Barton said officers are only transferred to best fit the needs of the department and never for retaliatory reasons. She noted that she’s been transferred 12 times in her career.
But that doesn’t hold up for Patterson.
“I would say that Chief Barton has served over 40 years and that the vast majority of her transfers she received were for promotions or transfers she requested — as opposed to involuntary transfers,” he said.
Other survey findings indicated that officers do not believe the department is headed in the right direction — particularly when it comes to the communication from the command staff to the officers on the street.
On the positive side, officers said they felt they had the training, equipment and support to properly do their job and that they believe the department is concerned with their mental health and wellness.
“I would say that we expected these results to be what they were,” Patterson said. “It’s pretty well known that these are issues inside the police department. We were glad to see that we learned a couple of positive things especially when it comes to mental health and wellness.”
Patterson said the department has recently formed a wellness unit that’s commanded by a lieutenant.
Barton did not comment on the survey results but released a written statement through her spokesperson that she would embrace the information and evaluate how to improve the things that may be within her span of control.
“I mean overall I think that the main thing is we just hope that there is a response and there is some willingness from the department to work together to solve these issues,” Patterson said. “And we understand that many of these issues may be perceptual — but perception is reality, and we should work together to try to make some positive changes.”
