Alfred Montgomery’s roughly 275 days at the helm of the St. Louis sheriff’s office have been marked with tumult.
After a contentious Democratic primary that went to a recount, Montgomery unseated Vernon Betts, who had held the role for eight years. Montgomery was young — just 27 at the time — and ambitious.
But before his first day, things soured when Montgomery sent termination letters to Betts’ top brass. He’s continued to be embroiled in controversy over spending, employment squabbles and his refusal to transport detainees for medical care.
The sheriff and his office have racked up multiple lawsuits around his decisions to have a former deputy roll a pair of golden dice for a chance to not get fired and ordering the handcuffing of the acting jail commissioner, which got Montgomery indicted with a federal misdemeanor.
The St. Louis Board of Aldermen recently passed legislation to place the sheriff’s office under yearlong financial scrutiny and force him to transport jail detainees to get medical care. As the matter works its way through the courts, a judge ruled Montgomery must begin doing medical transports.
Meanwhile, Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway is carrying on her predecessor Andrew Bailey’s quest to oust Montgomery from office. The sheriff has denied all of the AG’s accusations.
Montgomery sat down with St. Louis Public Radio’s Brian Munoz to explain his time so far in office.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length. You can listen to an extended cut of this interview above or wherever you get your podcasts.
Brian Munoz: You’re roughly 10 months into this job. What do you see as your biggest accomplishments?
Alfred Montgomery: Updating the office. We were able to get deputies a starting salary of $42,000 a year. We were able to fully staff the department. So we made a lot of changes within our office this far, and we’re continuing to make the changes.
Munoz: On the flip side, what do you think you’ve gotten wrong?
Montgomery: There will be some missteps, but I tried to come into this office reading and knowing the state statutes that relate to the City of St. Louis sheriff's office.
What I notice is the City of St. Louis moves off a lot of handshake deals. And I didn't come in moving off a handshake deals. I wanted to be that straightforward sheriff, not a person who dibbles and dabbles in favors of other elected officials. I respect every other elected official, but I just want to do the job, the core duties of the sheriff's office.
Munoz: The city recently passed a bill requiring the sheriff’s office to take detainees to the hospital. … You asked a judge to prevent the law from going into effect, but she denied that request. Is your office complying with the court order to transport jail detainees?
Montgomery: When it comes to state statutes and laws, that's what I abide by, and because that court order is in effect, I have to abide by that court order.
Munoz: Early in the conversation, you said you were fully staffed, but now you're short staffed. Can you just clarify?
Montgomery: We're fully staffed for the sheriff's office duties. When we pick up other duties like hospital duties, we become short staffed because we're not allocated to do those duties. The CJC is.
Munoz: One of the ideas you’ve floated is that the sheriff’s office should take over the City Justice Center. Mayor Cara Spencer pushed back pretty hard on that idea. What would be your plan to make things better at the jail for detainees?
Montgomery: The plan is to update that jail, update the locks. If we have to build another jail, let's get another jail built. These are individuals' loved ones. This is nothing but a baby workhouse in the making. We only shifted the rats from the workhouse and put them in the justice center.
Munoz: What are some of the changes that you would make if your idea goes through and you are now the commissioner of the jail?
Montgomery: I will clean house on day one. We got to clean up, we have to rebuild, we have to rebrand. We have to get the training together, we have to rehire individuals and then the work begins.
We have to first and foremost focus on the problems in the jail. Drugs are not growing on walls in a jail, detainees are not going outside bringing drugs in. This is a problem.
Munoz: Does the CJC have a drug problem?
Montgomery: Absolutely. In the past months, we have transported two to three individuals who have suffered from an overdose in CJC custody. This is a lockdown facility, and these individuals are overdosing on deadly drugs. That's a problem.
Editor's note: A CJC spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the alleged drug problem at the jail.
Munoz: What's your response to Mayor Cara Spencer and her criticism that you should be doing the job that you're assigned to, do not worry about running the jail?
Montgomery: I think the mayor is illiterate to city government. I don't think she understands the operation fully of city government, and it shows. At one point she's stating that it is the sheriff's office duty and the statutes are very clear, the care, custody and control falls on CJC. If you can't handle the job, then you need to pass a job to a person who can handle it.
Munoz: Finances have been a centerpiece in the criticism against you. There is one media report that alleges your office spent nearly $30,000 on new badges and also purchased a new Chevy Tahoe. Can you justify those expenses?
Montgomery: We're investing in the sheriff's office that has been neglected for years. This is a representation of a new era. Here we had several individuals with badges that is no longer employed at the sheriff's office utilizing them for when they get pulled over or utilizing them for when they're working different security details. So what I did, I changed the badge completely so we can know and identify who's a sheriff deputy and who's not a sheriff deputy.
In fact, 70% of our vehicles are beyond their useful life. We have our outside service guys out there doing evictions in vehicles that can break down any time. I'd rather have a brand new Tahoe that we can send around to use than a vehicle getting stuck on a highway in a different county with several detainees.
Munoz: What do you say to people who think your office’s finances have gone off the rails?
Montgomery: Come down to my office. You can ask questions, you can see the updates. I've made a promise to the city since doing a campaign to update and modernize our sheriff's office. No one wants to see a sheriff deputy with a dirty uniform with holes in it, and no one wants to see deputies with their pants hanging off of them, and they're all sloppy. We want a more professional sheriff's office.
Munoz: The legal actions your office is involved in are growing by the week, and one of the most notable is the Missouri attorney general's quest to oust you from office. Why do you think this is happening?
Montgomery: I think that it's racially motivated. It all boils down to me being the youngest African American sheriff elected in the United States history, and so this is just a push to get rid of Democrats, especially Black Democrats, around the United States. I think that the attorney general here felt like this was an easy grab, this was low-hanging fruit, so he kind of attempted to take candy from a baby, and a baby started pulling at his finger.
Munoz: Is there anything that you would have done differently so far?
Montgomery: Maybe I should have waited before spending on some things in the office. Maybe I should have waited and met with different individuals on different policies that would affect other individuals. We attempted to reach out to individuals just to have the doors shut in our face, so it's like you're set up for failure.
If I had known what we had in a budget at the beginning, we wouldn't be going through any of this stuff. We didn't have a good transition. We went with what we had.
Munoz: Why should the citizens of St. Louis trust you?
Montgomery: People should trust me because they elected me as their sheriff. Although they see these different misleading news allegations, I've proven them wrong. The Missouri attorney general said that I hired my brother, that turned out to be a complete lie. You have to ask the question, what else is a lie? What's really going on?
