According to a recent St. Louis Post-Dispatch analysis, St. Louis officers fire their guns at a higher rate than those in many other metropolitan forces.
And in cases where police officers’ use of deadly force is questioned, they almost always get off the hook – 113 out of 117 cases were cleared in the past five years.
Unlike many other departments, St. Louis has no third party checking the process, the Post-Dispatch reported.
Chief Dan Isom told the Post-Dispatch that the department has done an overhaul of its practices, and the department has commissioned a review of the four years of shootings since changes were made.
“The article gave the impression that there was little oversight as it related to officer-involved shootings,” Isom told The St. Louis American.
“Two different divisions in the department, Homicide and Internal Affairs, review these cases. The Board of Police Commissioners reviews these cases. The Circuit Attorney’s Office also reviews many of these cases when there are suspects involved. We continue to look at additional ways these cases can be reviewed.”
Police oversight has been on the minds of many in the community for a long time.
“The police department is notorious for this kind of behavior,” said Jamala Rogers, longtime activist with the Organization for Black Struggle (OBS).
“If innocent citizens of the City of St. Louis are assaulted by the police and every time the complaint is waived, what are citizens supposed to do?”
For this reason, OBS and the Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression have fought for civilian review of the police.
“After reading that article, I was appalled,” said state Rep. Jamilah Nasheed. “That is just one reason why we need the Citizens Oversight Review Board.”
In 2006, the Board of Aldermen passed a bill to establish a civilian review board, and it was vetoed by Mayor Francis G. Slay.
Building blue walls
The Post article points out that other cities release conclusions of deadly force investigations. The St. Louis police department continually resists releasing information.
“I see no reason why St. Louis can’t be releasing that kind of information,” said John Chasnoff, program director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri. “It would be to their advantage to come out and be more transparent rather than building walls between themselves and the citizens.”
In 2007, Chasnoff asked for all records from a police investigation into alleged criminal activity by some police. In 2010 the department turned over some of the files, but claimed that others were private interviews conducted for administrative purposes only. Judge Philip Haegney agreed with Chasnoff that all the files are open under Missouri’s Sunshine Law.
Chasnoff does recognize that releasing police officers’ names immediately could put them in danger, but the names should be released after a lapse of time.
Veteran activist Percy Green II said the Post article validates what civil rights activists were fighting back in the 1960s. Green said the article did not address issues of race. Green would like to see the number of white police officers who shot black folks and the number of black police officers who have shot white fleeing suspects.
“You would hardly find a black police who have shot a white fleeing suspect,” Green predicted.
‘Simply unacceptable’
The department hired Dr. David Klinger, associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at University of Missouri-St. Louis to conduct an independent review of police-involved shootings, Isom said. Klinger examined police-involved shootings during a five-year period, 2003 to 2007.
“Dr. Klinger provided a thorough examination of the use of deadly force as it relates to department policy and procedures, training, management in the aftermath of a weapon discharge, how the department investigates incidents and whether involved officers’ actions conformed to department policy,” Isom said.
The report found fault in how deadly force was used and investigated, the Post reported.
“Klinger wrote that when a shot missed, officers on the scene – sometimes the one who fired – investigated it themselves. He called it “simply unacceptable” and “egregious,'” the Post reported.
Klinger’s report cited lack of protocol for interviewing the officer or taking the weapon or measuring the scene, among other faults.
“The department wanted to learn what we were doing well and to identify areas that needed improvement,” Isom said. “Since the review, the department has made most of the changes recommended by Dr. Klinger in the study.”
Isom said the department has once again hired Klinger to examine officer- involved shootings during a four period, 2008-2011.
“As we did with the last study, we will look at the recommendations and will make changes that will lend to best practices and transparency,” Isom said.
These issues are particularly relevant, given that a ballot initiative being funded by Rex Sinquefield would return control of the St. Louis police department to city government, but also restrict the formation of a civil review board and close internal police investigations to public review. This initiative is the subject of an ACLU law suit.Â