The leaders of some of the St. Louis area’s largest counties have signed an agreement to establish a multimillion-dollar police training facility.
And while some St. Louis County residents panned the training center as a misplaced priority, others contended it was a rare example of collaboration between counties that often operate in their own silos.
“Everybody loves to talk about regionalism,” said St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann. “If regionalism was easy, everybody would be doing it. We found in the last year it's not easy. But if you have people that are willing to work together it makes it all a lot easier.”
St. Louis, St. Charles, Franklin and Jefferson counties will all oversee the Regional Law Enforcement Training Center. State lawmakers allocated $50 million to the project, which could include shooting ranges, a simulated urban environment and virtual reality simulator rooms.
While the location for the facility isn’t set yet, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said it will likely be in St. Louis County in close proximity to the other three counties.
“This has widespread support throughout the community, broad support,” Page said. “This will train our police officers under the best practices that are currently similar to what St. Louis County uses as a AAA-accredited agency.”
St. Louis County Councilman Mark Harder said that he expected the facility to mold better police officers, especially since some of the training could include how to deescalate a tense situation.
“There's been some criticism about maybe that this was too big of an academy or that it was bringing other philosophies into police training,” said Harder, R-Ballwin. “And I couldn't disagree more with that. This is about keeping our officers safe as well as keeping the population safe.”
Plan gets community criticism
What Harder was referring to is how the project received ample criticism during the St. Louis County Council’s public hearing.
Maplewood resident Lauren Filla said during a late July meeting that the facility was a misplaced priority, pointing to how St. Louis County still has major issues with food insecurity and homelessness.
“What I want to know from everyone that supports this bill is if you would look a child that's food insecure in the eyes and say: ‘Our community needs militarized police more than you need food,’” Filla said.
Kerry McCullen of Overland said he was put off by the fact that the state devoted $50 million to the project.
“$50 million that will be taken directly from community taxpayers dollars and into more weapons to be used against us, the people of St Louis,” McCullen said.
Only one member of the St. Louis County Council, Lisa Clancy, voted against the proposal in July. She said in January that she was concerned “about the new federal administration and the removal of checks and balances on justice and law enforcement in this country, in this community.”
“And I feel like I have received lots of affirmation since January that that could be true,” Clancy said in an interview on Wednesday.
Ehlmann said regional collaborations like this one could make it less likely that the federal government will try to intervene in crime fighting efforts throughout the St. Louis region.
“It’s now become a national issue, because too many local jurisdictions have not done what we're trying to do here, and that is work together, improve the policing everywhere, not just in our own little backyard,” Ehlmann said. “And I think if more places around the country would do this at the local level, we wouldn't have this debate going on at the national level.”
