51黑料

ST. LOUIS 鈥� Mayor Tishaura O. Jones made her annual 133-mile trek to the Missouri Capitol on Tuesday, mostly to make sure that state lawmakers keep their hands off the city鈥檚 police department.

It鈥檚 a silly battle but one that must be fought every year since voters returned control of the police department to city leaders in 2012.

Until then, a state commission controlled mostly by the governor ran the police department, an arrangement that had its origins in the Civil War. At the time, 51黑料 was one of only two cities in the state with that convoluted setup. Kansas City now stands alone.

Every year, some Republican from rural Missouri files a bill to reinstate state control of 51黑料 police. It鈥檚 a bill they would never file for the police department where they live.

So Jones, who is on the right side of this issue, every year goes back to the building where her political career started as a state representative. She walks the halls and talks to enough folks to make sure the bill dies, as it does every year.

She won鈥檛 have to work very hard at it this year. Crime is down in 51黑料 after a spike during the pandemic. Some of that is the nature of crime statistics. They rise and fall in American cities, often because of factors unrelated to the police department.

What Jones gets for being responsible for her police department, however, is the weight of taking the slings and arrows when the department fails 鈥� like when rookie cops drive their SUVs into bars or when the families of police shooting victims file lawsuits to hold the city and its officers accountable.

On the same day Jones was focused on Jefferson City, her city counselor鈥檚 office, run by Sheena Hamilton, turned its eyes to the Thomas F. Eagleton United States Courthouse. That鈥檚 where earlier this month, a federal judge ordered the city to make public an audit of police shootings from 2014 to 2018.

None of those shootings were on Jones鈥� watch. Police shooting lawsuits filed in the federal courthouse stem mostly from events that happened at least one mayoral administration before. But Jones鈥� response to those lawsuits matters.

That was the point Magistrate Judge Shirley P. Mensah made when she ordered the city to produce the audit 鈥� the same audit that it has been working overtime to keep secret.

鈥淭he document at issue bears on the question of whether the City properly investigated officer-involved shootings,鈥� Mensah wrote. 鈥淭he public interest in this claim and in how the Court evaluated it is very high.鈥�

The audit could be a feather in Jones鈥� cap. The former head of the Force Investigative Unit, which conducts police shooting investigations, was fired during her tenure, ostensibly because of the audit produced before Jones was elected. Maybe she made the city safer by holding a rogue police officer accountable. But citizens 鈥� and voters 鈥� will never know for sure if the audit is kept secret.

It鈥檚 more likely 鈥� based on portions of the audit the Post-Dispatch has seen 鈥� that Jones and Hamilton want to keep it secret because it is as shoddy as the police investigations it criticizes. Maybe the mayor and her top attorney don鈥檛 want to give lawyers a roadmap for proving a 鈥減attern and practice鈥� of past failures. But again, we don鈥檛 know.

That鈥檚 because at 8:22 p.m. on the evening Jones went to the state capital to maintain control of her police department, her city counselor filed an appeal of Mensah鈥檚 decision, hoping the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals allows the city to keep the audit secret.

The appeal delays potential justice for the families of police shooting victims seeking accountability. It delays answers about whether police shootings were properly investigated and whether anything has been done to improve that situation.

Mostly, it means that the police department Jones leads will remain in the shadows.