David Carson
A federal agent
opens the door to Alorton Village Hall on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012. Photo By
David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
EAST ST. LOUIS • Amid allegations of bad cops and widespread corruption within police
departments patrolling the tough streets below the Metro East bluffs, new
legislation would put four agencies under the umbrella of a state and community
oversight board.
State Sen. James
Clayborne, D-Belleville, inserted an amendment last week to unrelated
legislation regulating county board members.
As modified, it
would establish a "Metro East Police District Commission" to oversee
the crime-plagued and cash-starved police departments in East St. Louis,
Washington Park, Alorton and Brooklyn. The departments would still operate
independently.
If approved, the
bill would empower the commission to make ordinances to regulate the
departments, strengthen standards and apply for and spend state and federal
grants and appropriations. A separate bill would allow the communities to use
tax increment financing money to fund policing.
Stephen Wigginton,
the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, said Monday, "We
need historic change; the status quo is not working." Federal authorities
have been conducting an ongoing investigation into public corruption in that
area.
Just in the past
year, it has netted Michael Baxton, the former police chief of both Alorton and
East St. Louis who was caught in an FBI sting stealing Xbox video game systems;
and former Alorton Mayor Randy McCallum Sr., who has pleaded guilty to using
his police department to steal and distribute cocaine.
The complications
created by corruption can perhaps best be shown by former Washington Park lead
detective Kim McAfee, who recently reported to federal prison in Kentucky to
serve a 26-month term for fraud related to work his private security company
did for the East St. Louis schools and housing authority.
McAfee's
credibility became an underlying issue in last week's murder trial of Aaron
"Chill" Jackson, who was convicted of killing Washington Park Mayor
John Thornton in 2010. Jackson's first trial, last year, ended abruptly when a
state's witness told prosecutors that McAfee had offered her money to say that
he had not been present at the murder scene. The defense in the second trial
implied that McAfee might have framed Jackson, and even a state police
detective testified that McAfee had been questioned as a potential murder
suspect and could not be ruled out as having some connection to the crime.
St. Clair County
State's Attorney Brendan Kelly has pushed for the legislation "to combat
corruption and deal with violence." He will be in Springfield on Wednesday
with community leaders to testify in support of the bill.
"The people
in these communities deserve the best possible law enforcement," Kelly
said. He noted that half of the murders in East St. Louis since 2000 have gone
unsolved, largely because of a lack of standards and resources, in addition to
officers with criminal pasts. Kelly had alluded to the problem in a statement
Friday after the Jackson verdict. "When you have allegations of corrupt
police, guilty men may walk free," he said.
As proposed, the
police district would have seven members appointed by the governor, four by the
mayor of East St. Louis, and one each by the mayors of Alorton, Brooklyn and
Washington Park. It would also have three ex-officio members representing the
St. Clair County state's attorney and directors of the Illinois State Police
and Southern Illinois Law Enforcement Commission.
Wigginton said the
legislation "isn't a hostile takeover." He said the point was to produce
hiring standards, uniformity, and "raise the level of law
enforcement."
Still, the wording
of the legislation would give the commission strong powers, enabling it to
establish rules and regulations regarding officer ethics, search and seizure
procedures, evidence handling, purchasing and many other aspects of police
operations.
East St. Louis
Police Chief Michael Floore recently said his department had 46 officers.
Illinois State Police data from late 2010 show four full-time and 10 part-time
officers in Alorton and five full-time and 11 part-time in Washington Park;
Brooklyn was not listed.
It may not be an
easy sell among local politicians, especially in poor communities where police
departments have long been prominent centerpieces of money, power and public
jobs.
Washington Park
Mayor James Jones says there "will have to be changes in the
language" before the bill receives his support. Jones questioned why East
St. Louis would get four seats on the board, while the other three communities
would get one apiece.
Kelly said the
seat allocation was based on population.
The commission
would have an account with the Illinois state treasury and would be required to
submit a detailed report on its operations to the Legislature every other year.
Alvin Parks, the
mayor of East St. Louis, said he was supportive of the effort but had not seen
the specific legislation as of Monday.
The legislation is
HB1404.