urbanSTL

addxb2 wrote: ↑

Jul 24, 2025

She likely doesn't have any other option. Kehoe is correct that the Senate will not support Sheriff employee on the board, especially this sheriff.  I doubt the other board members would be willing to ruffle senate or Kehoe feathers by protecting her. She made herself irrelevant to the board with/without a formal removal process. 

The better question at this point... would they support maintaining her appointment if she backed out of the Sheriff's office job? Unsurprisingly this shows a lack of professional self-awareness that should be embarrassing to Kehoe and his "vetting" process. I'm not sure he would forgive/forget that.

Let's be honest, Kehoe didn't have a vetting process.

And how is the board making decisions without having approval from the Senate? How stupid is this gonna get?

What sort of people might make sense to be on a police board?

Retired cop
Retired police chief
Criminology professor
Executive at a security business
Retired judge
Clergyman
Former elected who chaired a public safety Cmte. What happened to Joe Vaccaro?
Who else?

None of these are on the board, smh.

Being a clergyman is not a qualification for anything

I'm not a supporter of privatized prisons or state takeovers but at this point I don't think St. Louis deserves to oversee its own jail. It's been corrupt and incompetent for years. I'm tired of the headlines created by unintelligent people who have snaked their way into being involved. Flush the whole criminal justice system and start over. 

Messenger: St. Louis jail board leader ruled not guilty after city's 'embarrassing' error
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/col ... 03b28.html

This case was corrupt when the Jones administration started it. Spencer administration should've be withdrawn and preemptively settled. How does an attorney (hired by the city in 2017) make this type of mistake?

Yeah that’s the sort of people that we should have on the list. Our current roster is such a joke. I think the right clergy member is a great add to the board. They are often leaders in the community and could be a valuable voice in terms of the human side of policing. Their role is especially important in the Black community on the North Side.

Appointing someone to government position on the basis of their religion sounds illegal and unconstitutional

JaneJacobsGhost wrote:Appointing someone to government position on the basis of their religion sounds illegal and unconstitutional

It wouldn’t be because of their religion and i didn’t specify any religion. They would be appointed based on their roles as community leaders, which they often are, particularly in impoverished areas. It’s not at all illegal or uncommon to appoint clergy to serve on government advisory boards.

addxb2 wrote: ↑

Jul 24, 2025

I'm not a supporter of privatized prisons or state takeovers but at this point I don't think St. Louis deserves to oversee its own jail. It's been corrupt and incompetent for years. I'm tired of the headlines created by unintelligent people who have snaked their way into being involved. Flush the whole criminal justice system and start over. 

Messenger: St. Louis jail board leader ruled not guilty after city's 'embarrassing' error
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/col ... 03b28.html

This case was corrupt when the Jones administration started it. Spencer administration should've be withdrawn and preemptively settled. How does an attorney (hired by the city in 2017) make this type of mistake?

Then the state can pay for it too.

Debaliviere91 wrote: ↑

Jul 24, 2025

JaneJacobsGhost wrote:Appointing someone to government position on the basis of their religion sounds illegal and unconstitutional

It wouldn’t be because of their religion and i didn’t specify any religion.

It doesn’t matter. Selecting someone because they are clergy is (1) establishing religion over irreligion which violates the first amendment and (2) shows preference in government appointments on the basis of religion v. irreligion. Each is prohibited.

JaneJacobsGhost wrote:

Debaliviere91 wrote: ↑

Jul 24, 2025

JaneJacobsGhost wrote:Appointing someone to government position on the basis of their religion sounds illegal and unconstitutional

It wouldn’t be because of their religion and i didn’t specify any religion.

It doesn’t matter. Selecting someone because they are clergy is (1) establishing religion over irreligion which violates the first amendment and (2) shows preference in government appointments on the basis of religion v. irreligion. Each is prohibited.

Your wrong on this. As I said earlier, when clergy serve on government boards, it isn’t because of their religion, it because of their impact and connection to the community through their ministry.

Did you know there is an official Clergy Advisory Board as a part of the city government?

Debaliviere91 wrote: ↑

Jul 25, 2025

JaneJacobsGhost wrote:

Debaliviere91 wrote: ↑

Jul 24, 2025

It wouldn’t be because of their religion and i didn’t specify any religion.

It doesn’t matter. Selecting someone because they are clergy is (1) establishing religion over irreligion which violates the first amendment and (2) shows preference in government appointments on the basis of religion v. irreligion. Each is prohibited.

Your wrong on this. As I said earlier, when clergy serve on government boards, it isn’t because of their religion, it because of their impact and connection to the community through their ministry.

Did you know there is an official Clergy Advisory Board as a part of the city government?

Then you have to pick them for that reason!

A citizen advisory board is not an official part of city government. It doesn’t set budgets. It doesn’t hire or fire. It doesn’t negotiate collective bargaining agreements.

It provides outreach and lets the health department know about what’s going on in the community. Nice try.

I don't see how picking a Catholic priest or Baptist minister who oversees a church in the city is any different than picking a business owner.

I’ll say it again. At no point has anyone here suggested you have to appoint clergy to any board, just that the right clergy member could be a good appointee because of their community ministry. A clergy member is perfectly eligible to serve on any board.

I think appointing a prominent pastor from North City who’s a leader in that community and can represent their unique challenges and opportunities with police would be vastly more impactful than having a businessman like Don Brown on the board, for example.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/cri ... fc842.html

Body-cam footage is rough. Undertrained cop, trigger happy, and not getting the facts of the matter straight before firing his weapon. "Drop the gun" he says to a man who is not carrying a gun.

It's actually so devastating that the fictional Jedi Knights have stricter training and use of force continuum than our police. We should not have to be looking at what Yoda says about weapons and use of force but here we are.

Mayor's "Change for St. Louis" document calls for the following public safety strategies. Fairly simple but I like to see the stakeholders involved. I hope they stay involved.

Short-term (< 1 year) 
- REACTIVATE INTERSECTION TRAFFIC CAMERA ENFORCEMENT 
- DEPLOY ADDITIONAL MOBILE SKYCOP UNITS
- EMERGENCY RECRUITMENT & RETENTION DRIVE (Recruit 200 officers and 30 civilian dispatchers.)
- EXPAND YOUTH VIOLENCE INTERVENTION: TEENS IN TRANSITION (TNT)
- CREATE A PUBLIC SAFETY BOARD OR COMMISSION
- DOUBLE DOWN ON IMPROVEMENTS TO THE CITY JUSTICE CENTER
- IMPROVE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

Mid-term (1-3 years)
- CO-RESPONDER EXPANSION: MENTAL HEALTH & CRISIS INTERVENTION
- PEDESTRIAN SAFETY THROUGH STREET REDESIGN (VISION ZERO)

Long-term (3+ years)
- REFORM SLMPD GOVERNANCE AND OVERSIGHT
- REATE A REGIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE DATA CONSORTIUM

^ My goodness, do I actually see a plan?  Wonderful! 

Most of this plan is just restating plans that are already being enacted or have been enacted:

https://www.ewgateway.org/save-lives-now/

https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/d ... /index.cfm

https://slmpd.org/slmpd-city-of-st-loui ... otiations/

And then the stuff that wasn't already planned, such as a "board of public safety", is totally unnecessary and will be a waste of money if it's ever created.

Unfortunate spat of homicides in North St. Louis this weekend. When looking at the daily report, the North district is the only one of three to see worsening rates. Estimated using 56.8% year complete. Sunday's homicides not included. 
North Patrol: 42 -> 78 estimated (64 in 2024)
Central Patrol: 21 ->37 estimated (59 in 2024)
South Patrol: 11 -> 20 estimated (27 in 2024)
Estimate 135 citywide. 150 in 2024. 

Stl PR - Missouri again leads nation in Black homicide victimization rates


https://www.stlpr.org/law-order/2025-07 ... tion-rates

Cincinnati national attention regarding downtown safety following viral brawl on July 26th.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireSto ... -124189559

Cincinnati CEO moves company out of downtown, citing safety concerns and 'failure in leadership'

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/ha ... leadership

I'm sure Cincinnati is the entity allowing people to open carry weapons, definitely not the state government.

Also, just goes to show how well the city has been doing with regards to crime, especially downtown, just doesn't get proper recognition.

Instead, we now have the usual types resorting to whining about drug addicts and homeless people because there isn't enough actual crime to whine about (and neither of those issues are municipal issues, they are both state level issues that our state chooses to ignore).

Sounds like he moved it out more because they weren't going to give incentives.  Same story here in STL I wager.

It's not even just the developers anymore.  The culture of civic pride in the business community is more based on the ledgers than unity and coherent direction.

bwcrow1s wrote: ↑

Aug 04, 2025

Sounds like he moved it out more because they weren't going to give incentives.  Same story here in STL I wager.

It's not even just the developers anymore.  The culture of civic pride in the business community is more based on the ledgers than unity and coherent direction.

And his company has a whole 35 employees. I'm sure city leaders are losing sleep over it.