Dr. Hans Menos, Vice President of the Center for Policing Equity's Triage Response Team, discussed findings from CPE's most recent report on ongoing work in the City of St. Louis with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Referencing the recently released Redesigning Public Safety in the City of St. Louis: A Progress Report, Dr. Menos highlighted findings and discussed future plans for continued collaboration with community stakeholders and government leaders.
The following is an excerpt from the article:
The findings were part of an analysis by the Center for Policing Equity, which found that three common needs were identified by residents: more investment of resources in historically Black neighborhoods, more non-police crisis responders and stronger accountability measures for police officers. The organization did not define the use of force for survey respondents.
The CPE interviewed 112 residents, focusing on Black residents in police districts where the use of force most often occurred.
“I think so much of the report is designed to build on the existing work in St. Louis that a lot of advocates have been working on for decades now, but especially after the death of Mike Brown,” said Hans Menos, vice president of CPE’s triage response team. “Our goal was to uplift that work.”
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Menos highlighted several efforts that his organization has undertaken with the city since the publication of its initial analysis, including working with the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and Farrakhan Shegog, who works for the Urban League and Young Voices with Action, which provides hunger relief and youth empowerment programs in the region.
But almost half of the 109-page report released Thursday focused on a police use-of-force policy that was written by St. Louis residents.
“This is a first of its kind that I’m aware of, where advocates from the city were asked to co-create a policy as significant as a use-of-force policy,” he said. “Not recommendations, but an actual written policy that, if the department chooses, they could copy and paste it.”
Read the full coverage on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website.