St. Louis Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards Archives

Missouri Senate committee gets to work on violent crimefighting package

July 29, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

A Missouri Senate committee is reviewing a plan that aims to help reduce the state’s violent crime rate. Sen. Doug Libla, the Transportation, Infrastructure, and Public Safety Committee chairman, is sponsoring the bill the Legislature is tasked with passing during the special session underway.

Missouri Senate

In Kansas City, at least 107 people have been murdered so far this year – a 35% increase over the same time last year. St. Louis has had at least 150 homicides so far in 2020, compared to 113 during the same period last year.

Gov. Mike Parson called the special session to have lawmakers pass a plan that includes creating a witness protection fund and removing a St. Louis police residency requirement to help recruit more officers.

During a committee hearing Tuesday, St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden says his department has a shortage of about 130 officers during a time when the city is averaging 10 homicides per week.

“No other police department in this region has a residency rule,” says Hayden. “Therefore, the department with the greatest demand for officers in this region has the greatest impediment to recruitment.”

Hayden says a study has found his department’s number one barrier to recruitment is the residency requirement.

“To meet the demands of the ongoing gun violence and continuing demonstrations, our officers have had to endure 12 hours days, cancellation of recreation days and countless, irretrievable hours away from their families. Needless to say, our officers are physically, emotionally and spiritually drained. We desperately need more officers and we need them now,” he says.

St. Louis Police Captain Charles Lowe says going to the area where he was shot in 2015 reopens a traumatic wound.

“Officers would not have the anxiety of coming back to those locations that caused them immediate anxiety,” says Lowe. “It would give them a time away where they can separate work and their family life, if you will.”

Social welfare organization Empower Missouri says removing the rule is a matter of local control and the state should stay out of the discussion. It is supportive of a witness protection program but says the component should be dealt with during a regular legislative session.

The plan would also require judges to consider whether youth should be tried as adults for crimes involving guns. St. Louis Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards says since the Legislature’s 2017 passage of a bill allowing permitless gun carry, the number of juveniles carrying guns has climbed.

“A significant number of homicides have been committed by youngsters that are 18 and below,” says Edwards.

The American Civil Liberties Union says the legislation is another ramp for juveniles to be thrown into the criminal justice system and raises racial bias concerns.

The committee has not yet voted on Senate Bill 1. The full Senate returns next Wednesday.

Missouri National Guard, Missouri Highway Patrol and FBI helping to patrol St. Louis; curfew in effect (AUDIO)

June 2, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

St. Louis’ Public Safety Director has announced that the FBI, ATF, the Missouri National Guard, the Missouri Highway Patrol and other agencies arrived overnight to help patrol St. Louis, and will continue to do so until further notice.

Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards tells reporters that more than 200 people engaged in “persistent criminal activity” overnight. He says four St. Louis police officers were shot, and that a retired officer was killed by a looter.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol logo (courtesy of Patrol Lieutenant Collin Stosberg)

The four officers who were shot have been released from the hospital.

“To the criminals that inflicted crime on our city last night, we have your surveillance pictures,” Edwards says. “And I will use every tool available to me to count every freckle on your face until you have been identified and arrested.”

Edwards says the city also requested the FBI surveillance plane and the FBI swat team, and they also arrived overnight. The St. Louis County swat team is also assisting.

Edwards says his officers are frustrated when fellow officers tarnish their badge, referring to George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. He says his officers joined in solidarity with protesters on Monday afternoon.

“Yesterday evening and throughout the early morning, many of the same protesters that our officers protected turned violent against them,” Edwards tells St. Louis reporters. He says they threw objects at officers and used fireworks against them.

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson says has signed an executive order establishing a citywide curfew, after the overnight burning and looting. She says retired officer David Dorn was shot to death last night, outside a looted pawn shop.

Mayor Krewson describes what happened overnight as a riot, adding that it was “a terrible night for St. Louis.”

“What started as a very non-violent and peaceful demonstration and protest ended in looting, shooting, burning and attacks on law enforcement,” Krewson says.

She tells reporters that hundreds of vehicles were going to various locations.

As for the curfew, it takes effect tonight at 9 and goes until 6 a.m. It will continue daily until further notice.

“9 p.m. to 6 a.m. in the morning, everybody needs to be off the streets, you need to be at home,” says Krewson.

There are exceptions to the order. They include those traveling to and from work, government employees performing work assignments, the news media and those traveling for medical treatment. The homeless are also exempt.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner also spoke today, saying that while she wants peaceful protesters to continue to make their voices heard, she will use the full power of law to prosecute those who shoot and murder police officers.

Prosecutor Gardner also urged peaceful protesters to help her office “root out those whose actions work directly against justice for all.”