Commentary: U. City Resident Questions Police Substation Plan

(Editor's Note: The following editorial was submitted to Patch by University City resident Ellen Bern. If you'd like to submit your own, create a free Patch account, then click on "write an article" or email your local editor at ryne.danielson@patch.com.)

For the past few years, and now for the foreseeable future, the University City Police Department has been located in a series of 22 modular buildings that house 100 employees. These modular units were installed at a cost of $98,380 a month for the first two years and $11,000 a month for the third year.

The city also pays $6,667 a month for three years to lease the land, with the land lease doubling after that. This is a total cost of $2,733,132 for the first three years. After that, the city is responsible for maintenance and upkeep along with a monthly land lease of $13,334 or $160,008 annually.

What is the lifespan for modular trailers? Why would the city allocate $6 million from the reserves to build a satellite police station when we don't have plans or funds for a permanent police station? How much additional overhead will be incurred by staffing two police stations with at least a skeleton staff for 24 hours a day, seven days a week?

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The City Council paid for two studies that looked at building one new police station on Olive Boulevard on a vacant lot that is adjacent to the new fire station and adjacent to the Third Ward. Yet this plan seems to be scrapped without any kind of study or discussion with the community on how to best meet the community's policing needs in an effective and affordable manner.

One might wonder if more funds spent to hire additional police officers to patrol the neighborhoods wouldn't be more effective in keeping our community safe. I don't know of another St. Louis County community that has both a main police station and a substation as a separate building. It seems a weird choice, especially for a compact city with plenty of local businesses that would gladly give the police their own on-site office free of charge. I bet they would throw in coffee too.

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