St. Louis leaders again push for local control of police
By Cara | February 18, 2010
JEFFERSON CITY — City government leaders renewed their push to place the St. Louis Police Department under local control Monday at a lengthy hearing in Jefferson City.
Supporters of the legislation say returning control of the St. Louis police force to City Hall would increase transparency and accountability. Mayor Francis Slay, who has long campaigned for ending the state control, testified before the House Special Committee on Urban Issues in favor of the bill, saying returning the police department to local control would make for a better department.
“The scandals that have rocked this department are a direct result of the structure of the governance,” Slay said.
But critics say such a change would leave the department at the hands of city politics. Joe Steiger, vice president of the St. Louis Police Officers
Association, called the move for local control a “hostile takeover” of the city’s police department.
“Local control would not make us a better police department,” Steiger testified during the hearing, which lasted several hours Monday evening. “The interference of local politics that would happen if the city got control would be unbearable.”
City officials and legislators have tried several times to enact local control legislation, but the bills have gone nowhere. A series of high-profile scandals within the department have some proponents optimistic the proposal could succeed this year.
In November 2009, state Auditor Susan Montee released an audit that was critical of some department business practices. The audit specifically
highlighted the department’s failure to return $4 million seized in felony cases that had been improperly held and the police board’s failure to monitor the department’s towing contract.
Then-Chief Joe Mokwa retired following the towing scandal in 2008.
Rep. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, sponsored the bill that called for the police chief to report to a public safety director, appointed by the mayor. Currently the chief reports to a Police Board, made of the mayor and four people appointed by the governor.
“This current model isn’t producing the desired results, saving money, or for that matter even fighting crime effectively,” Nasheed said.
Outstate legislators have been reluctant to approve bills that called for city controls, citing fears that city officials would gain control of the police department’s $600 million pension fund.
Nasheed, Slay and other proponents stressed that the pension fund would continue to be administered by the state if Nasheed’s bill passed.
Nasheed’s proposal, unlike those considered by the legislature in the past, has the support of Majority Floor Leader Steven Tilley, R-Perryville, who directs the flow of legislation.
“I would fight tooth and nail if someone tried to put Perryville police under state control,” Tilley said. “How can I sit back and let this happen here?”
Rep. Jeff Roorda, who is a former police chief of Kimmswick, Mo., said he supported the state controlled police department.
“We envy the system that you guys live under,” he said. “It’s worked for 150 years. Local control is being sold as a cure-all, and it’s not.”
The St. Louis Police Department Board of Commissioners has run the department since the Civil War, when pro-slavery officials in the capital wanted control of the anti-slavery city’s armory. Kansas City is the only other American city of comparable size with a police department controlled by the state.
While the control of the police department by the state is rooted in history, for the city’s police force, it’s very immediate.
Manuel Delgado, who retired after 31 years with the St. Louis Police Department and still lives in the city, said turning control of the police force over to City Hall would make the department unable to ensure the safety of St. Louis residents.
“If it passes, I’m going to sell my business and move,” Delgado said..
Topics: newsletter | No Comments »
Comments
« St. Louis weatherization program creates 39 jobs | Home | Carnahan: Cut taxes, loosen access to credit »