Tonight, the St. Louis County Council progressed for a measure that will give police officers in the County pay raises, with an additional 15 percent of Proposition P funds set aside for the police pension fund reserve. A final vote is expected by the end of the month.
Heated exchanges between attendees marked tonight’s meeting as well as the 3-5 p.m. hearing earlier this evening (Oct. 17) by the Council’s Justice and Health Committee.
After hearing from protestors in previous Council meetings, Committee of the St. Louis County Council wanted to find suggestions and solutions to curtail reported antagonistic, aggressive and even violent police behavior witnessed, recorded and shared via social media toward demonstrators during and after arrests.
“This is about suggestions on how to move forward with what happened at the Galleria,” Committee Chair Rochelle Walton Gray said.
Whether it was disregard, disrespect, or some other reason, not one of the law enforcement or criminal justice entities appeared to address the committee, made up of Walton Gray, Councilwoman Hazel Erby and Councilman Mark Harder.
Several suggestions were made by attendees who did speak, including identifying an outside entity to investigate allegations of police misconduct, such as empowering a civilian review board with power; dropping charges against those arrested; require officers to wear name tags even while in riot gear and holding police accountable for allegations of misconduct. Additionally, instead of Proposition P sales tax pay raises for police, speakers suggested using the bulk of the funds to pay for de-escalation training for all officers in the County and its municipalities.
After the sessions, Walton Gray told the American, “While my colleagues support these pay raises, I hope they, from the testimony they heard today, support the bill that I will file requiring additional training for police officers for implicit bias training, de-escalation training and community-based policing practices.”
