Three of the six finalists for police chief are from St. Louis, two are from Texas and one is from Oklahoma. Four are African American.
Interim Police Chief Lawrence O’Toole, Major John Hayden and Captain Mary Edward-Fears are currently at the department. The other candidates are Major Stephen “Max” Geron of Dallas, Police Chief Keith Humphrey of Norman, Okla. and Police Chief Patrick Melvin of Port Arthur, Texas.
Tonight, all six candidates faced questions about racism, community relations and outside investigations of police conduct at a public forum held at SLU Law Clinic Courtroom.
O’Toole, expectedly, was met with repeated protests when he got up to speak. At one point, activist Elizabeth Vega interrupted the forum to yell out, “We asked for him to be fired, and you have him up here potentially getting a promotion. That is the problem. Ask him to leave.”
About half the room stood up and applauded, including some wearing police uniforms.
Oddly, Edward-Fears, a black woman, wasn’t present for nearly an hour of the two-hour forum, and the moderator said he didn’t know where she was. When she arrived, she apologized for being “as late as she was,” but didn’t offer an explanation.
All the candidates were first asked how they would repair the police department’s relationship with the community. Predictably, they all said they would go out and meet with the community. Hayden, who is black, commands the city’s North Patrol Division and is a 30-year veteran of the police department. He said he sometimes sets up an office on a neighborhood corner. By working out there, he shows the community that he wants to engage with them.
Melvin, who is also black and has been police chief in Port Arthur since last year, said he would reach out to faith communities as a way to improve relations. Melvin has also been chief of the Salt River and Maricopa police departments in Arizona.
O’Toole said he would put out a survey to see what the issues of concern are. He got some snickers when he said, “Any relationship is about trust…and giving people a voice and being heard.”
In his short time as interim chief, a handful of lawsuits have been filed against the department, stemming from incidents when officers ultimately under his command brutally handled nonviolent protestors, members of the media, an undercover officer and even neighbors (one of them a U.S. Air Force officer) out for a walk – then boasted that police “owned the night.” Under his leadership, the department was issued an injunction from a federal judge that basically orders that O’Toole and his officers obey the Constitution, and subsequently the Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation.
Humphrey, who has served as chief in Norman since 2011, received a considerable amount of applause when he spoke about his desire to push for “procedural justice.”
“We need to educate the community about what their rights are,” said Humphrey, who applied and was passed over for Kansas City’s police chief this past summer.
Geron, who is white and a 25-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department, earned head nods when he said, “You don’t care about what we say until you know we care about you.” His talking points about open transparency and meeting with the “most vocal critics” were well received from the crowd. Geron also said that he did a thesison 21st Century strategies for policing protests.
All were asked if they would agree to an independent investigation unit, and all said they would. They were asked how they would bring together the Ethical Society of Police, an organization that represents largely black officers, and the St. Louis Police Officers Association, the bargaining union. All said they would sit the down together with them both.
On the question of dealing with racism, Humphrey, a black chief in a majority white department, said part of the problem is that police departments don’t address the emotional side of being a police officer.
“We have this perception that officers are hard shelled, they aren’t human but they are,” Humphrey said. “The reason why a lot of officers react and carry on the way they do is because we do not utilize our early intervention programs.”
At that point, community activist Bill Monroe, who was wearing an “Anthony Lamar Smith” T-shirt jumped up and said, “We are concerned about the murder of young black men by white armed police officers, sir. We’re concerned about the Jason Stockleys of the world who gun down black men.”
The crowd applauded.
Humphrey responded that it’s about de-escalation training. “We have to go back and train these officers,” he said, and make sure they are reporting biased behavior.
In closing, Melvin said that he has two sons, one who graduated from Harris-Stowe State University.
“And they look like me,” Melvin said. “I want a community that if they get stopped by police, they will be safe.”
Hayden said that he has “a stellar reputation” and was the commander for the internal affairs department.
“I’m a fair, inclusive individual,” he said.
Geron said that he wants to be the person to bring the community a police department that people can trust and that empowers the people to direct the department on what policies to use.
Edward-Fears, who was born at the Pruitt-Igoe public housing project in North city, said the department is often deemed as stuck in the 1960s.
“We are sometimes called the South,” she said. “We got to get better. We got to get more progressive. We got to build trust.”
O’Toole started his closing statement with, “I am committed to positive change,” and that was about as much as he was able to get out before he was heckled and booed off the microphone.
On Friday, the finalists will be interviewed by Mayor Lyda Krewson and Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards, along with the police union and Ethical Society of Police.
Krewson and Edwards will make the final decision before the end of the year.
