Police Research Group Shocked By Predatory Ticketing Practices In St. Louis County

[Tom Joad]

I'm shocked!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMIyDf3gBoY

WASHINGTON -- The head of a respected police research organization that has studied policing in St. Louis over the past several months said his organization has "never before encountered" the types of profit-driven policing practices it found in parts of St. Louis County.

“Our organization found a situation that, in many ways, is dysfunctional and unsustainable,” Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, said in a statement on Monday along with the release of the 79-page report. The organization has worked with more than 300 police departments across the country.

The PERF report found that an "inappropriate and misguided mission has been thrust upon the police in many communities: the need to generate large sums of revenue for their city governments."

"This is not the way that policing is done in the United States. PERF has never before encountered what we have seen in parts of St. Louis County. The role of police is to protect the public and to work with local communities to solve problems of crime and disorder -- not to harass residents with absurd systems of fines and penalties, mostly for extremely minor offenses," the report stated.

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