St. Louis Police

The officer whose testimony led to Kurtis Watkins' 25 year sentence had a history of racist social media posts and a mistaken identification of another Black man that led to his death in custody.

The St. Louis Police Partnership Program connects participants and their families with officers through monthly home visits and resources like jobs, education and housing.

A federal lawsuit alleges St. Louis sheriff's deputies told the Jefferson County man he could not protest in front of the Civil Courts Building — a public area — due to department policy. No such policy seems to exist.

In St. Louis, murder investigations often rely on a single detective, making them vulnerable if the detective is unable or unwilling to come to court. But a former homicide investigator said he has no obligation to cooperate, claiming that “retirement is meant to be retirement.”

The Missouri House passed a measure in March to return the St. Louis Police Department to state control. It’s unclear what the Senate may do in the waning days of the session.

A decade after St. Louis officially reclaimed local control of its police, a Missouri Senate bill would put the department back under state control — a policy originally born out pro-slavery leaders’ attempt to maintain power 150 years ago.

The lawsuit was filed on the eighth anniversary of the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson.

Attorney Kevin Carnie Jr. of the Simon Law Firm discusses Lombardo v. City of St. Louis. The U.S. Supreme Court revived the lawsuit against the St. Louis Police, forcing the 8th Circuit to take another look at the legal standard for excessive force.

Updated at 2:10 p.m. Jan. 22 with House committee actionLegislation that would remove residency requirements for St. Louis police officers passed out of…

Former St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson first introduced the idea of the “Ferguson effect” in a 2014 column for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, when he…