Kimberly M.

Gardn er
Circuit Attorney
City of St. Louis

J anu ary 16 , 2019

As th e Circuit Attorney, l have t h e responsibility to defend the in tegrity of t he

criminal ju stice system, and a large part of that duty is to review th e work of
police.

Today l participated in a n interview with KSDK on a matte r that illustrates why

some members of t h e community distrust la w enforcement in t h e City of S t.
Lou is.

An officer from t h e St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department came to th e

Circuit Attorn ey's Office to apply for a warran t earlier t his month . Th e office r
told my staff that he was sent to our office by SLMPD Major Michael Sack,
desp ite k nowin g that we would n ot accept a warrant a pplication from t h e
officer .

Th e office r recorded the interaction wit h ou r staff on his cell p h one without th e
kn owledge of my team, which is completely u nprofessional, inappropriate and
is not cond ucive to foste ring trust between our offices . My staff acted in a
comp letely p rofessional and respectful manner, which is exactly wh at I wou ld
expect from th em .

The office r's version o f the incident summarized in a report to his superiors ,
was not at all reflective of what you will s ee on the video recording, which is
why 1 app reciated the opportunity to addr ess t his issue.

Police in tegrity is at th e core of t h e community's confidence in t h e criminal

justice system, Unfortunately, t his kind of behavior from t his office r is all too
fam..iliar to many citizens and d oes n ot foste r t rust wit h the community. If
police in teract with th e community in th e same way this officer in teracted wit h
my staff, it's not surprising we h ave a crisis of con fidence wit h la w
enforcement.

While there is a n atu r al tension between some police and p rosecu tors due to
these ch ecks and balances , t h e recording of my staff, the inaccurate m emo of
the event s ent to superiors and t he fos tering of media. coverage over a
manufactured incident is completely out of line. When some police want to
defend the indefensible officers with questionable credibility, that tension is
heightened.

lf the SLMPD continues to direct their banned officers to come to the Warrant
Office to apply on cases, then t hey can expect to be turned away. My team and
the people of t he great city will not be bullied into letting o fficers, whose
credibility we question, b ring cases to our office •· t hat can take liberty and
freedom a.way from a citizen •· I say no.

My office will con tinue to work collaboratively wit h the police department to
investigate criminal cases and hold offenders accountable for violating Missouri
law.

This unfortunate interaction is not representative the vast majority of hard

working and professional police officers we work with every day. J u rge Chief
Hayden and Public Safety Director Jimmie Edward s to address this
u nbecoming behavior immediately.