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St. Louis Police Chief Addresses Bar:PM Crash: ‘They Made a Mistake’ | St. Louis

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click to enlarge RYAN KRULL Police chief Robert Tracy addresses the media after one year as the city’s top cop.
After three high-profile police car crashes in the past month, St. Louis Police Chief Robert Tracy acknowledged today — at least tacitly so — that his officers may need better training behind the wheel.
Tracy was at a press conference this morning along with Mayor Tishaura Jones and other public officials touting the drop in homicides last year to the lowest level in a decade.
“But let me be clear, we are not here to celebrate,” Jones said. “One life lost to violence is one too many.” She noted that she herself has lost four family members to gun violence since becoming mayor in 2021.
Still, on the homicide front, there was cause for optimism. A chart on an easel next to the mayor showed that last year’s 158 homicides were down not just from the pandemic high of 263 killings in 2020, but also to below pre-pandemic levels.
Tracy, for his part, spoke about bringing back into the department officers who had previously left for other agencies or, as Tracy put it, “for greener pastures, or so they thought.”
When it came time for questions from the media, virtually all of them were for the police chief. Tracy, who this week is celebrating one year with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, was asked about departmental transparency, his own availability to the media, and the police SUV that three weeks ago slammed into Bar:PM, an incident that made national news after the gay bar’s co-owner was arrested.
“I feel bad,” Tracy said. “And I’m sorry that their establishment got hit.”
Tracy said he was limited on what he could say about the incident because he is the “final arbiter” of the internal investigation into the officer behind the wheel of the SUV who hit the bar. But Tracy did say that because the officer has already admitted to some things, he could “go out on a limb” and say the investigation wasn’t going to result in a finding of “no fault.”
“They made a mistake,” Tracy said. “And just because they made a mistake, it doesn’t mean we don’t hold them accountable.”
About the body cam footage of the incident, Tracy said he was limited by the state Sunshine Law as to what he could release, an assertion that KSDK’s Mark Maxwell pushed back on, noting that the footage’s release was only barred by the police’s own investigation — which Tracy has the authority to close.
Tracy cited the criminal prosecution of the bar co-owner, Chad Morris, as preventing the release of the footage.
In addition to the Bar:PM crash, police crashed another SUV this weekend in Downtown West and another one in December in north city — both dramatic incidents that left the vehicles upside down. Asked about those, Tracy said that each officer gets 40 hours of defensive training in the police academy, and when they become officers, they take part in a six-month evaluation wherein they are paired with a senior officer who assesses their ability behind the wheel.
“Maybe we should grade that a little harder,” he said.
Tracy added: “I’m looking at the type of training, and I’ve sat down with the trainers. I’m looking nationally, I go to conferences, I talk to other chiefs, what are you doing to bring accidents down? Because more officers get hurt in car accidents, and so do other people, than probably any other thing.”
Asked to grade himself overall, Tracy said he’d give himself a B.
“There’s so much more work to do,” he said.
We welcome tips and feedback. Email the author at [email protected] or follow on Twitter at @RyanWKrull. Subscribe to Riverfront Times newsletters.Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
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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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