Police Reform

The St. Louis Board of Aldermen passed a bill Friday that puts the Detention Facilities Oversight Board and the Civilian Police Oversight Board under a civilian commissioner.

Mayor Tishaura Jones details plans to spend $150 million in north St. Louis and addresses recent setbacks in her aim to reform the city’s criminal justice system.

The St. Louis mayor says she remains committed to ‘reimagining public safety’ and efforts to make communities safer beyond policing.

Javad Khazaeli represents a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel swept up in the mass arrests that followed the St. Louis Police “kettling” protesters in downtown St. Louis in 2017.

The program launched by the St. Clair County Transit District is meant to relieve pressure on local police and offer better care for riders who need it.

The proposed Office of Public Accountability is an attempt to give civilians more control in police reform efforts.

The deaths of Don Ray Clark and Nicholas Gilbert at the hands of police are eerily similar to the highly publicized killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. St. Louis officers faced no consequences, but the City of St. Louis is trying to change how we hold police to account.

Seven years after Ferguson and months after the George Floyd murder verdict, police reform has stagnated. The legal system remains stacked in favor of police. The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting funded a team of a dozen college journalists to take a broad look at the issues.

The omnibus public safety bill received overwhelming bipartisan support, and includes more than 40 provisions that will affect how police, corrections officers, and prosecutors do their jobs.

A ban on chokeholds, expanded police background checks and higher pay for most county sheriffs are in the bipartisan, compromise bill.