N4I Daily Briefing | 1:44 PM Thu, Jul 03, 2008
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August 2008
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Ledell Brothers' last conscious hour had to be terrifying. According to St. Louis police records from July, 2005, three men chased Brothers through the Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood in North St. Louis. Every time they caught up with him, Brothers got a beating.
Alice Payne says she still remembers seeing her beaten brother in a bed at Barnes-Jewish Hospital that night. She says the beating was so bad, his face was unrecognizable. "By us knowing it was him, we knew it was him," she said in an interview in her North Side home. "But it was like... it really didn't look like him." The next evening, Brothers died. But according to crime records maintained by the Missouri Highway Patrol, this never happened. According to crime statistics complied by the Missouri Highway Patrol, no one was murdered in Wellston in 2005. Or 2006. Or 2007. As we discovered, those statistics are dead wrong -- and Wellston Police are to blame. State law requires local police departments to file detailed crime reports with the Highway Patrol every month. This allows police managers to accurately track crime and helps lawmakers allocate money to police forces that need it most. Wellston Police have failed to submit those reports since at least 2005. As a result, Brothers' murder -- and at least six more from those three years -- were never counted. According to Wellston's mayor, this failure to comply with state law is the result of a pile of problems. Mayor Frank McNeil said a police chief was terminated in 2006 for failing to file reports with the Highway Patrol. In 2007, a new chief was appointed and ordered to fix Wellston's crime reporting problem. Yet the backlog of unreported crimes continued to snowball. Later that year, a civilian employee in charge of crime reporting was terminated for failing to do her job. Not until March, 2008 did Wellston begin to address its crime reporting problems. According to Mayor McNeil, an assistant chief is now managing the city's crime reporting program. He expects the department to be in full compliance with the law by the end of July. In the meantime, Wellston's failure to file crime statistics is holding back police efforts to crack down on crime in the north county community. Until the city is in compliance, Wellston is ineligible for state and federal funds that could be used to hire more officers or purchase better equipment. 
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the Mayor is not telling you the truth I know because i was a officer last year when it was brought up at a meeting and they wheree going to have a officer do the reports. what do you think when they change the officer every 6 months check and see I be ther is not a officer that has been there for more than 6-7 months whith a department of 15-20 this is wrong and then they hire people who have been fired by all the other departments
more than you think is wrong in that department check the recordsof the jail booking, shootings
Steve, sad but great story. A few things though...
1) Future reference, you need to address Wellston as "The City of Pity". All people do is shake their head when they hear about Wellston and say "figures".
2) Loved seeing and hearing that boob of a mayor Frank McNeil babble and mubble. How long did it take to translate his interview into english? The so called politians are truely ignorant crooks and hope they all eventually receive the prison sentences they deserve.
3) Wellston is like the turd that won't flush down the toilet. Atleast you know where you can when you need a story about f*d up politicians.
Steve, sad but great story. A few things though...
1) Future reference, you need to address Wellston as "The City of Pity". All people do is shake their head when they hear about Wellston and say "figures".
2) Loved seeing and hearing that boob of a mayor Frank McNeil babble and mubble. How long did it take to translate his interview into english? The so called politians are truely ignorant crooks and hope they all eventually receive the prison sentences they deserve.
3) Wellston is like the turd that won't flush down the toilet. Atleast you know where you can when you need a story about f*d up politicians.