More Flordell Hills Police Means More Municipal Revenue
Flordel Hills is one of the many tiny municipalities in St. Louis County, it originated as a residential subdivision:
Before Flordell Hills was built in 1939, the area consisted of St. Ann Dairy Farms with corn fields, orchards, chicken houses, barns and buildings for cattle scattered throughout. A creek running under our area going out over Jennings Station Road, ran parallel to West Florissant and College where there was a foot bridge.
Norm Schuermann and Co. initiated construction of our homes in 1939, starting at Greenhaven. They came in three sizes selling for approximately $3,000 to $3,350. Some say the basements were dug out by mule teams and others remember tractors with metal wheels being used. We now have 360 homes and a population of approximately 950. Mr. Schuermann also agreed to enclose the ditch at Greendale Park (now Greenhaven) if we secured enough insurance policies from our residents for his insurance business. We got the policies and park too. The Improvement Association used the rocks from the ditch construction and formed the entrance columns on Greendale Drive. (Flordell Hills history)
It was incorporated in 1945, prompting the incorporation of Jennings the following year:
By 1946, north St. Louis City and County were booming with plenty of blue-collar jobs and convenient bus transportation. The decision to incorporate the communities of Jennings, Jenwood, and Woodland occurred after the nearby smaller communities of Country Club Hills and Flordell Hills incorporated in 1943 and 1945, respectively. Both cities snapped up portions of commercial property on West Florissant Avenue. (Jennings history)
How tiny is Flordell Hills? Less than half the size of the I-70/I-170 interchange I posted about last week!
Two weeks from today Flordel Hills will have its own police force.
I wanted to know more about Flordell Hills so I started at the municipal website, flordell.com
Here’s the text under the Municipal Court about:
About the Program
On March xx, 2011, the Board of Alderman of the City of Flordell Hills, Missouri passed Ordinance No. xx-xxxx amending the Flordell Municipal Code of Ordinance by adding a new section establishing the infraction of “violation of traffic safety on roadways” and the automatic traffic enforcement regulations in the City of Flordell Hills.The Ordinance authorizes the use of automated speed enforcement to improve public safety by controlling speeds in enforced zones, improving traffic flows and reducing speed-related accidents.
The Ordinance can be reviewed by clicking on this link (click here) to the City of Flordell Hills Code.
Automated speed enforcement automatically detects, photographs, and identifies vehicles exceeding the speed limit and then issues violation notices to the registered owners of those vehicles via mail.
Speeding is a major cause of all vehicle crashes and speed enforcement is a constant priority for ensuring the public safety. Fewer vehicle crashes reduce the need for other public resources such as first responders and hospital emergency room resources. Automated traffic enforcement systems are being used in safety-minded communities across the globe. Automated enforcement systems are recommended by The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, The International Association of Chiefs of Police, The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, The Federal Highway Administration and The American Automobile Association.
City of Flordell Hills police officers already use electronic speed-enforcement methods, such as radar, to monitor drivers and issue tickets to speeders. This has proven to be effective in reducing vehicle accidents and improving public safety and public officer safety.
Better safety is our primary traffic-control goal. Our objective is to improve the long-term behavior of drivers in the Flordell Hills community, which in turn improves the safety of our citizens and visitors to our community.
Please obey speed limits and drive safely.
Really? The “click here” link isn’t a link at all. March xx, 2011? Ordinance No. xx-xxxx? At least I know they have a Board of Aldermen rather than a city council. I bet it has x number of members representing x wards…
More on the memorial:
The cannon at Memorial Park is a WWI Howitzer than came from France with the approval of President Roosevelt. The cannon was dedicated on Memorial Day, 1946, to the men of Flordell Hills who lost their lives in WW2. Sixteen to twenty men volunteered to move the cannon from the boxcar on the tracks to Memorial Park. In the process it got away from them and nearly hit a building, but they managed to get the cannon in its present locations without further mishap. A band and parade were on hand for the dedication. In 1949 the cannon was supported by jacks encased in cement to keep the weight off the tires. (Flordell Hills parks)
Here are the results from last week’s poll:
Q: Starting Oct 1st the north county suburb of Flordell Hills, pop 822, will have its own police force again. Thoughts:
- More officers means more revenue 32 [50.79%]
- Other: 12 [19.05%]
- Another example of why consolidation is needed
- Dissolve the counties’ police forces and local gov’ts and create one unity gov
- There should be only two police departments STL city & STL county
- stupid, disband town and police force, become county
- Another example of bureaucratic overload — mismanagement to the max
- Terrible
- Asinine ploy to get revenue
- They’ll lose money, get worse protection
- More opportunities for patronage placements!
- Sounds unnecessary
- Money grab
- contract with the county police!
- Won’t be substantially different than current protection from neighboring Country Club Hills 11 [17.46%]
- Unsure/No Opinion 5 [7.94%]
- They’ve decided to provide better police coverage for the community 3 [4.76%]
The Flordell Hills Police Department does have a Facebook page.
St. Louis County needs less police departments, municipalities, etc. Tomorrow I’ll expand on this subject.
— Steve Patterson
It is terrible. The abuse that has been reported by media on the part of government officials is corrupt, they are little more than mafia bosses with the police as their enforcers. The Washington Post article about this subject is an eye opener, The Post Dispatch has also reported on the subject less aggressively.
I really think a potential solution is to by law make all fines and citation monies go to a third party, say to support schools for instance, rather than the muni and their police department. I am actually surprised no one at state level has proposed such a law.
The abuse by government officials is wrong, policing should not be a for profit enterprise, and that is what is happening.
.
One other point Steve, I think we are creating a culture of disenfranchised youths who can care less about the future, they have no stake in society. They are harassed by police and government officials, sometimes rightly, but more often so the muni can profit. It is not unlike the middle east and what has happened there.
I don’t think it is a coincidence that in recent months there seems to be more and more targeting shootings of innocent people on the streets. People not being robbed or otherwise in the middle of something, but simply targets in and of themselves.
The whole system is so rigged that it creates a sense of hopelessness. For any of your readers who did not see the Washington Post article on the rigged system of justice in St. Louis here is the link again. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/09/03/how-st-louis-county-missouri-profits-from-poverty/
I apologize for posting it again and while I think the Post-Dispatch has done fairly decent job in covering this issue, the rest of the media has fallen down on the job. The media pretends Dooley’s proposal to eliminate some court fees and Ferguson’s reform proposals are meaningful, when in fact they only touche the edges of the underlying problem. (apparently the 15 percent revenue limit on fines Ferguson has proposed is actually higher than what is going on now with their ball busting 3 tickets per resident per year)
In the end the washed up St. Louis political, corporate and media leadership will probably accept these minor reforms and call it a dayand publicize it as a success. Let the corruption continue unabated is the mantra!
We certainly don’t want to stand in the way of corruption, now do we? We wouldn’t be good, robotic Americans otherwise.