Readers Support St. Louis County’s New Minimum Police Standards
I’ll start this post with opinion from the Post-Dispatch’s Tony Messenger: Cities look foolish fighting against higher police standards:
It’s amazing, when you think about it, that 12 cities in St. Louis County are seeking to stop the ordinance. If they win, lower standards win out, too. If you live in Webster Groves or Clayton or Florissant or Hazelwood, or Kirkwood or Edmundson, your city is spending your tax money defending their right to have sub-standard police departments.
Why would they do this?
It goes back to the passage of Senate Bill 5 (also being challenged in court by multiple municipalities), which reduced the amount of traffic revenue cities could depend upon to fund their coffers. If you haven’t been hibernating since Aug. 9, 2014, you recognize this has been the strongest, and most unified across the political spectrum, response to the protests and unrest in Ferguson after the death of Michael Brown.
Messenger is right, these municipalities don’t want change from the status quo. They know change could lead to them no longer existing. St. Louis County isn’t big enough in land area or population for 90 municipalities and 57 police departments.
More than 70% of those who voted in the unscientific Sunday Poll support the new standards:
Q: St. Louis County has issued new minimum police standards, but some of the 57 police departments object. Do you support or oppose county-wide minimum standards?
- Strongly support 12 [44.44%]
- Support 5 [18.52%]
- Somewhat support 2 [7.41%]
- Neither support or oppose 0 [0%]
- Somewhat oppose 1 [3.7%]
- Oppose 1 [3.7%]
- Strongly oppose 2 [7.41%]
- Unsure/no answer 4 [14.81%]
Change isn’t going to come easily, quickly, or quietly.
— Steve Patterson