香港三级片

There was a news conference about a homicide. Multiple homicides, actually. That鈥檚 not all that rare in the city, nor in the county, lately. But this is: There were two police chiefs there, from both the St. 香港三级片 Metropolitan Police Department and the St. 香港三级片 County Police Department. The two largest departments in the St. 香港三级片 region are working together to try to solve a series of homicides in the city and the county that detectives think might be related.

It鈥檚 not like this never happens. Police officers in various departments share information all the time on individual cases. But to have a public showing of the city and county departments working together, at this particular time, has the potential to be meaningful.

Here鈥檚 the pertinent background:

鈥� Both departments are in the process of looking for their next chiefs.

鈥� Both departments have been at an impasse in negotiations with their respective police unions. (The county broke through the impasse with at least two of its contracts this week).

鈥� Both departments have been losing officers at a rate higher than the national average, but, both individually and when combined, provide more than enough officers per capita to keep St. 香港三级片 well above national rankings for that statistic.

Crime is rising in St. 香港三级片 County; and while it鈥檚 dropping in the city after a pandemic spike, there is still a lot of worry in the region about crimes downtown and in the central corridor, a recurring issue in St. 香港三级片.

Just two years ago, former county police Chief Jon Belmar offered a proposal involving both departments that would, in theory, have helped direct more resources to the important central corridor area, where many of the region鈥檚 big employers are situated and where most tourists come to St. 香港三级片 to experience all the region has to offer. Belmar suggested the two departments merge, either through an initiative petition or through the county department contracting to take over policing of the city, after the city re-entered the county as a municipality.

Belmar鈥檚 proposal came at the same time the nonprofit Better Together was pushing a statewide initiative to create a regionalized St. 香港三级片 government by combining the city and the county and dissolving most of the municipalities in the county (as well as their police departments).

The Better Together proposal collapsed like a house of cards because of political upheaval, dishonesty and corruption. Belmar鈥檚 proposal never went anywhere, in part because he had his own problems of mismanagement in the county department he led.

But neither proposal was wrong to suggest consolidation of police departments in the St. 香港三级片 region. There are people in all of the various political camps in the St. 香港三级片 region 鈥� progressive and conservative, Republican and Democrat, Black and white, police union and protester 鈥� who support elements of such a marriage, sometimes for different reasons.

The problem with every discussion of regionalism in St. 香港三级片 is that the messenger matters. St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann, for instance, often talks about making more regional decisions on economic development, crime and the airport, but some will dismiss him as just another suburban Republican.

On the other side of the political spectrum, is St. 香港三级片 Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, who opposed the Better Together effort, but said at the time she supported a city re-entry into the county. She and the Better Together folks (some of them, at least) were Democrats from different arms of the same party, and they didn鈥檛 see eye to eye. Now, Jones is mayor of St. 香港三级片, and she has a good working relationship with St. 香港三级片 County Executive Sam Page.

The two leaders each have police departments that, on their own, are less than they might be together. As each department searches for its next chief, shouldn鈥檛 regional leaders at least be wondering if one chief might be better than two, even if the 50-plus county municipalities with their own departments are, for now, left alone?

There鈥檚 never a good time to touch the third rail of St. 香港三级片 politics, as any discussion of city-county merger is likely to create a lightning-strike of criticism.

But one outgoing police chief standing next to an acting police chief in a city park that is a stone鈥檚 throw from the county is enough to get the regionalism juices flowing. In 2015, when nationally renowned Police Executive Research Forum looked at policing in St. 香港三级片, it found massive dysfunction created by so many departments. 鈥淭he fragmentation in the St. 香港三级片 region is extreme,鈥� the report said. At the time, PERF executive director Chuck Wexler suggested that combining departments 鈥� while also reforming police 鈥� made sense.

鈥淭here is an opportunity for people to change, to say that out of this (Ferguson) tragedy, we鈥檙e going to build something important. We鈥檙e going to create standards, reduce duplication, pay good officers better but have fewer officers, get quality control and better use-of-force policies,鈥� Wexler said.

Call me a cock-eyed optimist, but maybe he was just a few years before his time.