St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell began his first day in office on January 1 with two swearing-in ceremonies and a promise to work together with fairness for all.
“The goal of this office is to keep St. Louis County residents safe, first and foremost, but we plan to do that in a manner that is not only going to keep St. Louis County residents safe, but also help people that need help,” Bell told reporters shortly after midnight at his New Year’s celebration at the Sheraton Hotel in Clayton.
“We’re going to expand diversion programs and treatment programs for nonviolent offenders. We want to give them the tools they need in the toolbox to be productive citizens and not be progressing to the violent crimes. We want to make sure that we are implementing policies that are not disproportionately affecting people because of the zip code that they live in.”
When asked if he had concerns about some prosecutors in his office joining the city police union, Bell told The American, “Not at all. I talked to a lot of prosecutors in that office and we’re going to implement the changes that we promised, and we’re going to give everyone in that office the opportunity to get on board. And I am very optimistic that they will.”
Bell said that whenever you make changes, there will be some resistance.
“Sometimes, people feel that they are not a part of this change, and maybe if they are holdovers, they don’t believe that they are part of the team. But am I here to say that they all are,” Bell said. “They’ll have that opportunity to get on board. And so we’re going to implement these changes, and we want everyone in that office to be a part of our team because it’s not an ‘us-versus-them’ thing, it’s a ‘we’ thing.”
Bell’s message to county residents was similar.
“We’re all in this together, and we’ve preached that from the beginning,” Bell said. “The only way that we’re going to make this region a destination region once again is if we’re all pulling in the same direction.”
His second day in office on January 2 brought staff changes, with three people reportedly leaving the office. While not commenting on those personnel matters, a spokesperson confirmed that Sam Alton was appointed chief of staff, Tim Swope was appointed chief operations officer, Doug Sidel joined the executive leadership team, and Teresa Bomkamp was promoted to interim head of the sex crimes unit.
