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St. Louis Public Safety Town Hall Draws Big Names — and Big Questions | St. Louis

Published

9 months ago

January 9, 2024

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click to enlarge RYAN KRULL Aldermanic President Megan Green and Police Commissioner Robert Tracy share thoughts at a public safety town hall on January 8, 2024.

Some elected leaders had an easier time than others at last night’s public safety town hall.

The event, which went down at the Urban League and was so packed as to require multiple overflow rooms, saw six of the City of St. Louis’ top elected leaders answer pre-selected questions from the public in a conversation (of sorts) moderated by Ward 10 Alderwoman Shameem Clark Hubbard.

On the one hand, in terms of the night’s ease, there was Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore, who touted his first six months in office, comparing himself favorably to his predecessor Kim Gardner, whose office he said many believed “had stopped playing its vital role in the criminal justice system.”

“I do think that our office stepping in and effectively prosecuting violent crime has had a direct impact in saving lives,” he said.

Gore also talked about bringing new hires into his office, clearing a case backlog and beefing up a diversion program.

On the other hand there was Public Safety Director Charles Coyle.

Things had been going smoothly enough the first hour or so of the town hall when Coyle got a question about the safety of the City Justice Center, which saw a spate of deaths last year. as well as a hostage situation and a lack of medical care for detainees in dire need.

Coyle began by saying that problems in the city exist in the jail, and vice versa. It was when he said, “The largest number of deaths were from natural causes,” that he began to lose the crowd, many of whom openly laughed at the statement.

click to enlarge RYAN KRULL Audience members pushed back on some of Public Safety Director Charles Coyle’s claims about the troubled City Justice Center.

Coyle’s task was no doubt made more difficult by the presence in the audience of several members of Freedom Community Center, a criminal justice reform organization, though the crowd writ large didn’t exactly seem eager to come to his aid. (Mike Milton, Freedom Community Center’s founder, has been a critic of jail operations and recently quit its oversight board with a strongly worded letter.)

At one point, Coyle engaged in back and forth with FCC member Tracy Stanton over the number of people currently incarcerated at the jail. Coyle insisted it was around 600. Stanton said it was closer to 900 as of January 1, around the time that the jail’s daily tracking public system went offline.

Members of the audience shouted to Coyle about water being shut off to cells, inadequate food, suicides and the jail commissioner needing to be fired.

“They don’t want to take care of these people when they come in,” said an elderly woman standing near Coyle.

At some point, LJ Punch, a trauma surgeon on the panel with the elected leaders, intervened.

“I can’t do this. These are human beings,” said Punch. “As a physician and as a community leader, this is not OK.”

Referring to Coyle, Punch said, “You don’t have the proper forum. People aren’t able to make their concerns be heard.”

Aldermanic President Megan Ellyia Green won back a portion of the room’s good will when she promised to schedule a Public Safety committee hearing where people concerned about the jail can make their thoughts known.

That was one of many instances last night in which Green seemed to connect adroitly with the audience. In general she connected issues like red light cameras, expired temp tags and traffic calming measures to specific board of aldermen actions, but also spoke more personally on topics like curbing domestic violence in the city.

If Gore had the easiest time facing the public last night, then it was Police Chief Robert Tracy who got off the easiest.
click to enlarge RYAN KRULL Police Commissioner Robert Tracy.

“One hundred and fifty-eight is progress, not a celebration,” Tracy said of last year’s homicide tally, down drastically from 2022.

The big issue of the night for the top city’s cop was reckless driving — everyone’s reckless driving, that is, except his own department’s. (A question about the spate of police SUV crashes was reportedly on the list of items to be discussed, but alas, it never came up.)

Tracy said that two of the biggest complaints he hears from residents at community meetings are about dangerous drivers and the ubiquity of expired tags. He insisted the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is doing something about this, citing the more than 32,000 moving violations the department gave out last year in addition to 7,166 summonses for vehicles without proper registration.

Green, for her part, said that she wanted to see the city and state make it easier to register vehicles and renew plates so that police resources can be reserved for people who are the real problem — those putting fake plates on their cars and truly trying to evade the law.

“If it becomes more of the norm that you need to have your tags on your vehicle, then the folks who are just lazy start to get compliant because they realize there might actually be repercussions,” Green said. “Which makes it easier for Tracy and his officers to actually go after the folks with the fake plates.”

The most surprising part of the town hall, aside from the long, and at times contentious back and forth over the jail, was just how frequently cars and reckless driving surfaced as a topic of concern.

“In St. Louis, you can’t drive two blocks without seeing a bumper, a headlight, a fender,” said James Clark, vice president of public safety and community response for the Urban League. He’d been asked a question about how to stop domestic violence.

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

4 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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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

Published

4 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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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

Published

5 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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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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