Crime & Safety

County Police Chief: Fearing Bad PR, Schools Don't Report Crime Aggressively

In his blog, St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch cited St. Louis Community College's mishandling of the assault of a Chesterfield student on its Meramec campus as an example.

In the wake of an attack on a Chesterfield student on the campus of St. Louis Community College-Meramec and its subsequent mishandling by the university, St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch is urging schools to be more aggressive in their treatment of suspects in criminal incidents.

Writing in his blog, Fitch said that part of the problem is that educational institutions often would rather handle crimes as "school violations" instead of notifying police.

“This goes on more than you realize,” Fitch wrote. “Schools, like most instiutions that rely on public support for funding, do not want to look bad or admit they have problems for fear that their next bond issue or tax increase might not pass.”

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Fitch then specifically referenced his home district of Rockwood as an example of how bad publicity can doom a bond issue. The district's $38.4 million Prop S failed to pass this spring following controversy created by a state audit and the subsequent resignation of a school board member.

In the case of the Meramec attack, the college came under fire for not immediately alerting students about the assault and was also criticized for briefly releasing the suspect, Jevon Mallory, 18, who was eventually charged in connection to the incident.

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The controversy culminated on Monday, when SLCC-Meramec President George Wasson announced his resignation from the post. The president of SLCC-Wildwood will take over in an interim capacity. 

Fitch, who said his daughter attends SLCC-Meramec, wrote that it was likely that the attack would have gone unreported if the victim’s family hadn’t gone to the media.

As Patch previously reported, 19-year-old Blythe Grupe of Chesterfield, said she was attacked in a women's restroom on campus April 18. An instructor heard Grupe's screams, ran into the bathroom, which stopped the alleged assault, and then called campus police.

Fitch said the issue of schools downplaying criminal incidents in hopes of avoiding negative publicity is longstanding. He gave several examples from his career in law enforcement:

There was a time a few years ago when we had to threaten a local school superintendent and principal with prosecution under the Missouri Safe Schools Act for failing to report acts of violence in their school to police authorities.  They didn’t take us seriously until we brought a prosecutor to the school to let them know we (and the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office) meant business.  Things have gotten much better in that district since then.  I saw the same resistance from some districts when we started our heroin initiative in 2010 and asked to hold Town Hall meetings in school auditoriums.  One local district chastised me for even suggesting that schools were in denial about their drug problems.

He ended the blog post by noting that serious crimes such as the Meramec assault are infrequent and suggested that in the future, SLCC promptly turn over any felony crime to the Kirkwood Police, an agency that would not be “beholden to image-conscious bosses” at the campus.


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