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St. Louis’ Dumb Cops Can’t Multitask While Driving, Commander Suggests

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There hasn’t been a large increase in accidents involving St. Louis police — or at least that’s what police told the Board of Aldermen yesterday. The police department always averages 100 to 150 crashes a year, there’s just more photos of them now.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has earned derision for a series of one-car crashes in recent months, including most prominently one where a police SUV plowed into a gay bar (and then arrested the bar’s owner), but also other accidents where police failed to acknowledge their actions or crashed in seemingly spectacular ways. Major Janice Bockstruck, commander of the Bureau of Specialized Enforcement for SLMPD, spoke about the incidents before the aldermen at their Public Safety Committee meeting on Thursday. 

The 100 to 150 number Bockstruck gave the board adds up to close to one accident every three days. Of course, the timing of these accidents can vary year by year, but the estimate alone should be cause for concern. Shouldn’t it?

Bockstruck didn’t seem to think so. 

The committee’s chair, Ward 4 Alderman Bret Narayan, asked Bockstruck if the department had seen more wrecks since it switched from sedans to Tahoe SUVs. Mayor Tishaura Jones had suggested that might be a cause for recent high-profile wrecks, as the RFT previously reported.

“We have always ranged from 100 to 150 auto accidents a year, fluctuating up and down since 2016,” Bockstruck said. 

Narayan asked if, “anecdotally speaking” there was a feeling in the department amongst officers that the SUVs are more difficult to drive.

“You have a computer, you have a radio, you don’t always know where you’re going, it’s not the typical grocery go-getting I do in my car,” Narayan said. 

Bockstruck responded by explaining that SUVs are considered optimal and are standard for policing nationwide. She said she doesn’t see an increase in the number of wrecks just because of the department’s transition to SUVs. Instead, she said, police have to multitask when driving.

“Policemen are responsible for a lot, and it’s a very different type of driving than the average citizen. A citizen knows, ‘I’m going from A to B’ and are concentrating solely — or hopefully concentrating solely — on their driving,” she said. “Police officers are responsible for obtaining a lot of information, digesting that information and their environment, while they’re driving.”

This can include monitoring radio communications and figuring out how and where to respond while driving, Bockstruck said. 

“It is a giant responsibility to digest all the information that’s coming at you, at the same time as your environment and your driving skills,” she said.

Ward 14 Alderman Rasheen Aldridge brought up the recent series of crashes in the news and asked Bockstruck how long the department has been utilizing SUVs. She said they’ve been driving them for 10 or more years. 

Aldermanic President Megan Green said the city has had the Tahoes since 2008.

“We’ve had them for a while so I would hope that we would have figured out in 15 years how to operate them safely,” Green said.

Aldridge asked if the current force had less experience driving this type of vehicle and if that is perhaps why these crashes have occurred. 

“Our auto accident numbers are the same as they have historically been since 2016,” Bockstruck said. “I don’t see it being more, I just think more technology has brought forth more pictures of auto accidents.”

“A little bit more oversight there potentially,” Aldridge said.

“However you want to phrase that,” Bockstruck said.

Aldridge asked what steps the department was taking to ensure officers don’t keep crashing.

“Like I said, I think we take the proactive steps already,” Bockstruck said. 

If an officer is involved in an “at fault” auto accident, they may receive disciplinary measures ranging from a written reprimand to suspension and loss of wages. Additionally for each at-fault accident the driver is sent to training, Bockstruck said. 

“It’s more than most agencies do and we take that very seriously,” she said.

Narayan asked what happens if drivers are repeatedly found to have caused at fault accidents in the course of their career.

Bockstruck said it only counts as a repeated accident (for disciplinary purposes) if it occurred within three years of the previous crash. She said the department doesn’t “hold it against them for eternity.”

“Very seldom is it repeat offenders,” she said.

Ward 7 Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier asked Bockstruck if a policy was in place regarding toxicology tests for officers who crash their cars.

Bockstruck said the department adheres to the city admin regulation for all employees — which is to say cops are not always, or even most of the time, tested for drugs and alcohol after a crash.

Narayan chimed in to say that this issue was part of ongoing labor negotiations.

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword. 

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate. 

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault. 

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade. 

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection. 

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery. 

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.” 

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings. 

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said. 

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release. 

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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