METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT City of St. Louis 1200 Clark Avenue St. Louis, Mo. 63103 August 18, 1976 Dear Residents: On August 10, 1976, I along with other officers of this district, attended a meeting sponsored by Alderman Vincent Schoemehl at the Hamilton School. You attended the meeting along with many of your neighbors and friends in Washington Heights. I was deeply disturbed that the meeting ended on a negative note, and that we did not accomplish all that should have been accomplished.
The following day we did remove two derelict automobiles from 5806 Waterman in response to complaints made. We also visited the apartment on Laurel where you suspect narcotics are being sold, and are now attempting to plan an effective strategy against those persons. The Sanitation Officers are working diligently to correct the trash problems you mentioned.
I thought it significant that there were so few complaints about criminal activities. The complaints, as you know, centered around neighborhood nuisances, such as loud record players, trash, derelict autos, unsupervised children, and young people loitering in school yards and on neighborhood street corners.
How well we all know that these are the first ominous signs of disintegrationand neighborhood destruction. When some of our neighbors do not care, the entire community suffers. We here at the Seventh District care about this community and want its citizens to go about their affairs in peace and safety. You are aware that our prime concern is crime, even though we are called in to assist on many social problems, lost persons, family arguments, sanitation problems, and many, many other matters completely unrelated to crime in any way. We always attempt to do what we can in these matters. Many times our powers of arrest solve these problems, but most often this is not true. Arrest is at best a temporary, short-range solution to the many problems you have described.
This is not to say we will not arrest those persons who are making life unbearable for you. We have and will continue to make arrests. I would suggest an alternative action for those problems that fall into the non-criminal area, but are of serious concern to you.
I have discussed this approach with Cal Stewart of Skinker-DeBaliviere, and he agrees that many problems can be solved at the neighborhood level, using the police only as a last resort, or as an ancillary branch of the neighborhood. I would like to see neighbors, united by concern for their block or neighborhood, join together and visit the offending families as a group. By acting as a group much of the fear of a negative confrontation is dissapated.
Many families do not know what is expected of them or their children. No one has ever told them. The “do your own thing” attitude dominates their relationships with each other and the neighbors. I sincerely believe that concerted action by community members can change many of these bad habits. I am not talking about vigilantism in any way.
I am talking about a gentle approach, neighbor to neighbor. If that fails, we, the police, will be happy to assist in any legal way possible.
We hope you will consider this suggestion and implement it whenever the need arises. We, along with Cal Stewart, are willing to assist in formulating plans to put this plan into effect. Yours for a better communtiy, Captain Gay Carraway Seventh District Commander
Originally published in The Paper, September 1976.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1976_09.pdf, printed page(s) 2; PDF page(s) 2.
