local control

New Chief Dotson Will Pursue Civilian Review Boards For Police Department

Rachel Lippmann — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 21:45:31 +0000

The new chief of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department says he wants to implement a civilian review board in the city of St. Louis.

Sam Dotson officially took over as chief on Tuesday. The former operations director for Mayor Francis Slay replaces Dan Isom, who retired.

Creation Of A Municipal Police Force Begins Today

Rachel Lippmann — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 17:16:35 +0000

The process of turning control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department over to City Hall begins today.

Ald. Craig Schmid, the chair of the public safety committee at the Board of Aldermen, will introduce the bill in which the city accepts "responsibility, ownership and liability as the successor-in-interest for contractual obligations, indebtedness and other lawful obligations of the Board of Police Commissioners."

Missouri Voters To Decide St. Louis Local Control Issue

Maria Altman — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 11:03:00 +0000

St. Louis is one of the few cities in the U.S. that does not control its own police department.

On Tuesday, Missouri voters will decide whether the city should regain oversight of its police force for the first time in 151 years.

But as St. Louis Public Radio’s Maria Altman reports there’s disagreement over Proposition A within the city.

Anything but simple

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is right across the street from City Hall.

Proposition A - Local Control Of The City Of St. Louis Police

Alex Heuer, Mary Edwards and Don Marsh — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:41:43 +0000

In the first of four discussions as part of our town hall meeting about statewide ballot issues we take a look at Proposition A, concerning local control of the City of St. Louis police department.

Host Don Marsh talks with Jeff Rainford, Mayor Francis Slay’s Chief of Staff for the City of St. Louis, and John Chasnoff, Program Director for the ACLU of Eastern Missouri. Rainford supports Proposition A while Chasnoff opposes it.

Official Ballot Title: (source: Missouri Secretary of State website)

Shall Missouri law be amended to:

Activists Rally Against Prop A

Tim Lloyd — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 01:30:21 +0000

Activists say it’s a tricky maneuver.

Groups including the ACLU and NAACP have long supported local control of police. But Chair of the Organization for Black Struggle, Montague Simmons, says Proposition A would undercut transparency and citizen oversight.

“The banner head that they’re using for local control, we built credibility for,” Simmons says. “People understand it and they identify directly with citizen review. They identify it with accountability and transparency. Absent that, people will be buying in to something they can’t live with.”