After the Labor Day holiday, state Senator Jamilah Nasheed will send the Board of Aldermen’s Public Safety Committee a formal request to schedule a hearing on St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s alleged decision to no longer accept criminal cases from 28 St. Louis police officers, Nasheed announced on August 31.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on the list on August 30, relying on police sources.
“We deserve to know why this unprecedented step was taken. If the circuit attorney’s office no longer trusts the word of more than two dozen city police officers, the people should know why and how this trust was broken,” Nasheed stated.
“Unfortunately, the details of this ‘exclusion list’ have been kept secret. That’s why I’m calling on the Board of Aldermen to shine a light on why this ‘exclusion list’ was created in the first place.”
Nasheed noted that the list’s existence became public one day before the 5th anniversary of the city regaining control of its police department from the state. She stressed that basic transparency and openness are vital to ensuring the continued success of those efforts.
Nasheed represents Missouri’s 5th Senatorial District in the City of St. Louis and announced her candidacy for president of the Board of Aldermen earlier this year. In 2011, she wrote and guided the passage of legislation (HB71) that eventually returned local control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to the City of St. Louis.
“Exclusion of witnesses is entirely appropriate when there are questions of veracity, whether they are police officers or lay people. In fact, it is the job of prosecutors to determine the credibility of all witnesses and make the appropriate decisions on who they are going to put on the witness stand. Prosecutors across the country exclude police officers from bringing cases to their office when they believe it’s necessary. To say this never happens is inaccurate,” Gardner said in a statement after police sources fed the Post the story.
“The list was created at the request of the SLMPD, not at the urging of prosecutors, as it was intended for internal purposes to ensure integrity in the system.”
Gardner said the police leak “had resulted in fostering misinformation and fear in the community.”
