ST. LOUIS _ In the past five months, 13 current or former St. Louis police officers have been in the news, charged with crimes including involuntary manslaughter, civil rights violations and bribery.
Last month alone, a young St. Louis police officer was shot to death at the home of a colleague, who was supposed to be on patrol at least 2 miles away. Prosecutors say they were playing with guns at the time, and that drugs and alcohol may have been involved, although a city official cast doubt on that claim.
Three days later, two other officers, William Olsten and Joseph Schmitt, were accused of assault and armed criminal action for shooting a man after an altercation in a local bar while off duty.
Another police officer was arrested on suspicion of theft Jan. 23, but has not been charged.
One of four former officers enmeshed in a bribery scandal was sentenced to 10 months in prison.
And text messages and other statements released in court documents shed more light on police officers who are accused of beating an undercover colleague, Luther Hall, "like Rodney King." They had already been accused of showing a thirst for assaulting protesters, according to their indictment.
The recent charges have led to questions about whether systemic problems afflict the 1,100 member St. Louis police department, including whether training and oversight are adequate.
"It seems like you have a lot of police officers that are breaking the law," KTVI reporter Andy Banker told Chief John Hayden at a news conference Thursday, one of a series of questions that have been repeatedly lobbed at St. Louis officials in the last week.
Hayden said that the department was conducting investigations into allegations of officer misconduct and ensuring that they're done properly. He said many of the alleged misdeeds occurred as long as a year ago and were just "culminating at kind of the same time." He also said the charges show that "we are willing to hold people accountable" and seek charges from local or federal prosecutors when appropriate.
But he also hinted that more names could be added to the list. "There are some very serious internal investigations as we speak _ that you do not know about."
Multiple area officials have said that the incidence of police misconduct is rare.
After officers were accused of beating Hall and of covering it up, Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards, who oversees the department, called the four officers "outliers."
Asked in a news conference Tuesday about the number of police charged recently, Edwards pointed out that they were accused of crimes that spanned a much longer time period, including some years ago.
He, like Hayden, said those accused of crimes represented a small percentage of the total number of officers, and said officers are held accountable for misconduct. "We should not vilify the entire department based on what happened here," Edwards said, cautioning anyone about being "alarmist." "There is not a social pattern of dysfunctionality in the St. Louis Police Department."
"The vast majority of officers _ they do it right," he said.
Edwards said he wants to develop a mentorship program to provide guidance from more experienced officers to young officers who tend to associate with their peers from the academy.
In a written statement after St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner filed charges against Olsten and Schmitt, she wrote "These types of situations, while rare, are crushing to the criminal justice system."
She said "the vast majority of St. Louis police officers serve our community honorably every day," but also wrote, "The alleged actions of these police officers strike at the heart of police power and community trust in law enforcement."
U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Jensen, whose office charged the police officers accused of beating Luther Hall and those who admitted taking bribes in return for nonpublic accident reports, said Thursday: "I don't see any systemic issues."
"Any large organization will have problems that develop. When they do, we address them," he said, adding "We support the men and women of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and its leadership."
Asked the same question, the business manager of the St. Louis Police Officers Association, Jeff Roorda, said any issue with police lies not with the quality of officers, but the quantity, saying the department is about 150 officers short, and said "the people of St. Louis are happy with their police department."
Alderman Joseph Vaccaro, while saying Friday, "I stand behind police," expressed concern about the experience level of officers.
"My take on the whole problem _ all the cops that have any experience and have been around a while are gone. We've got a department made up of youngsters," Vaccaro said.
A lack of supervision often is the cause of misconduct, said Professor David Carter, a professor of criminal justice at Michigan State University. He said he had worked with two police agencies that had similar runs of bad news during U.S. Department of Justice projects.
"It's unfortunately not that uncommon," Carter said. The reasons vary, but often come down to a lack of peer support and supervision, he said.
"First line supervisors just simply weren't monitoring their personnel, taking corrective action when necessary," he said.
He said that typically, officers are not following police policies, and "the misconduct was just kind of a manifestation of that."
The effect on the community also varies, he said, depending on whether the community already has a positive or negative impression of the department.
If it's good, area residents may simply say, "'That's too bad, I hate to see that,' but they don't lose faith in the police department overall." If it's bad, it tends to reinforce that belief. "'The department's no good. I can't trust these guys,'" he said.
But the Missouri native said he had seen news of Officer Katlyn Alix's shooting, and said "I've never seen anything like that before."
The allegations against the officers facing criminal charges could pose a significant financial threat to the city if lawsuits result.
Less than a week after Alix's death, her family retained Scott Rosenblum and two other lawyers. Rosenblum said he was hired to protect the family's interests, ensure a proper investigation is performed and "separate fact from fiction, what's real and what's rumors."
Whether it ends up in a civil lawsuit, Rosenblum said, "has yet to be determined."
Luther Hall has a lawyer, as does his former partner. He still has not returned to duty and needed stitches to close a hole in his lip and surgery to repair his back.
The man shot by Schmitt also has a law firm representing him. In a statement, his lawyers said the shooting had caused "serious, disabling and permanent physical and emotional damage."
One of those lawyers said they were exploring "civil remedies"
Local criminal defense lawyer Nick Zotos said the city's legal liability for Alix's death at the hands of an on-duty police officer was "enormous."
Carter, the criminology professor, said of the cases he studied, lawsuits were "very costly to the department."
