CLAYTON — Final reports from consultants hired to analyze the ӣƵ and ӣƵ County police departments are expected to be released early this week, potentially setting off a broad effort to restructure law enforcement in the region.
ӣƵ County officials believe the report on the county police department will be critical of its diversity and inclusion efforts, as well as its overall leadership under Chief Mary Barton and her two predecessors, Jon Belmar and Tim Fitch, according to a source with knowledge of briefings prior to the report’s release. And the report will take issue with how the department communicates with the news media and public.
It was less clear what the consultants would say about the city police department.
Barton, in an interview last week, said she was ready to “hopefully move the police department forward with the results.”
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The chief’s remarks were the first time she has spoken publicly about the six-month study, which was funded by Centene Corp. and other ӣƵ-area companies. She said she had a general idea of what recommendations would be made, but was not willing to discuss them because they had not yet been shared with the Board of Police Commissioners or the department.
Barton is also facing an ultimatum from the Ethical Society of Police, a group that represents minority officers in the department, to take a series of actions to eliminate systemic racism in the department. And the County Council threatened to block collective bargaining agreements if the department and the police union do not consent to greater public oversight.
While Centene has been associated with efforts to merge parts or all of the ӣƵ and ӣƵ County police departments, Barton said a merger with the city police department “has never been mentioned to me.”
She expressed admiration for the consultants working for Teneo Group, a New York- and London-based CEO advisory group, and eagerness to implement its findings. Among the consultants associated with the project were Charles “Chuck” Ramsey, a former Philadelphia police commissioner and Washington police chief, and Daniel Oates, former police chief in Aurora, Colorado, and Miami Beach, Florida.
The group said it had drilled into six areas of interest: a “cultural diagnostic” that considers everything from employee relations to public trust in the police; the department’s communications strategy; crime reduction strategy; use of technology; use of force; and allocation of resources.
ӣƵ County Executive Sam Page was the first to announce the privately funded review of the police department in late June. The announcement appeared to undermine the police board, which had just weeks before passed up Page’s top choice for the job, Lt. Col. Troy Doyle, to name Barton. Doyle, who is Black, then filed a complaint of racial discrimination that remains pending.
Days after Page’s announcement, ӣƵ Mayor Lyda Krewson agreed to a parallel review in the city.
Pressure for change
As the homicide rate climbs, the police departments are under clear pressure from the business community to make changes. Centene has put on hold plans to build the second phase of its campus expansion after CEO Michael Neidorff warned he wouldn’t invest further in the region until crime rates fell. Earlier this year, Centene announced a $1 billion headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Neidorff has been vocal in his criticism of the failure of ӣƵ leadership to address quality of life issues, especially violent crime, which he has seen as a deterrent to recruiting talent to the region.
“In any process where you’re moving forward with change, it’s always painful,” Barton said. “So I can’t speak to everybody being on board in the police department, but what I can speak to is the fact that if you’re going to make change, it’s always better to have multiple inputs.”
Barton said, “The people from Teneo who are doing this study have really wide and diverse backgrounds and a lot of experience. They’re very, very dedicated to moving police departments forward. That’s kind of what they do. So I look forward to receiving the results of the study and continue to improve our department and operations and its policies in any way possible. And I’ll take whatever input they give me and weigh it, and hopefully move the police department forward with the results.”
She said that in a phone call with the consultants she came away with a general idea of the recommendations, but not specifics.
“I’m aware of some of the recommendations they will probably be making,” she said. “But I don’t feel — because it hasn’t been shared with the board or any members of the police department — comfortable sharing that.”
Asked whether she thought Teneo may be recommending a merger of the city and county police departments, Barton said, “I can’t speak to where anybody thinks this might be going, but that was never articulated to me or this police department. … That has never been mentioned to me.”
She said the police department would consider recommendations, “but every recommendation has to be weighed in what possible benefit it is to the police department, how affordable it is, how can we do this to move the police department forward?”
Asked whether she was uncomfortable with the corporate pressure, Barton said, “I can’t speak to the motives of anybody else. … I can speak to the fact that the police department will remain apolitical. Our job is to deliver police services to the citizens the best we can and to reduce crime. … I can’t speak to what Centene’s or anybody else’s motives are.”
Secret initiative
As previously reported by the Post-Dispatch, Teneo’s involvement in the city and county police departments led to a top-secret initiative to combine some efforts in the county’s 8th Precinct in the city of Jennings and in the city’s 6th District, in north ӣƵ. A memo obtained by the newspaper outlined a plan for a 120-day pilot program.
A report obtained last week by a reporter showed that crime appeared to be falling in the target area, which includes Jennings and the Walnut Park West neighborhood of ӣƵ.
In six of the eight categories of crimes typically reported in crime stats, the four-week period that ended Dec. 12 saw major reductions over the previous four weeks.
And the drop-off was most significant in the second half of that period, according to a PowerPoint presentation titled: “Violent Crime Taskforce 120 Days: Jennings and Walnut Park West.”
