University City Weighs Joining Countywide Drug Task Force

UNIVERSITY CITY, MO — The University City Council introduced an ordinance Monday night authorizing a partnership between the University City Police Department and St. Louis County's Multi-Jurisdictional Drug Task Force. The draft agreement would see one University City detective assigned to the task force, which engages in undercover activities and works closely with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI to combat drug trafficking.

The drug task force currently consists of detectives from Ballwin, Bellefontaine Neighbors, Chesterfield, Creve Coeur, Ferguson, Florissant, Manchester, St. Charles, Webster Groves and Woodson Terrace, along with the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Much of its funding comes from state and federal grants.

If approved, University City will add its name to that list and one detective to the task force. That detective will be under the direction of the St. Louis County Police Department for the duration of the agreement. University City's police chief will also join the task force's policy board.

Of note, by joining the drug task force, University City will be entitled to a portion of assets attained in countywide drug enforcement operations, regardless of where the assets are seized.

Civil asset forfeiture is a much-criticized legal tool that allows police to seize property they believe is involved in illegal activity. According the the American Civil Liberties Union, police departments across the country have abused civil asset forfeiture laws to take property with little due process.

For example, the Justice Department's Ferguson Report detailed how that city — also a member of the drug task force — used such laws to run the department as a revenue-generating business. "Ferguson’s law enforcement practices are shaped by the city’s focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs," the report read.

And how that revenue is spent is poorly documented. Open records requests from the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force — one of 21 such task forces in the state — show almost 70 percent of revenue collected through asset forfeiture programs were spent on "other law enforcement expenses," a vague, overly-broad category.

"Drug task forces have a uniquely broad amount of power and a uniquely minimal amount of oversight and transparency,” Aaron Malin told the Post-Dispatch in January. An activist and law student who has worked with the ACLU, Malin filed suit to obtain similar reports from the Multi-Jurisdictional Drug Task Force earlier this year. Malin's court filings accuse the task force of violating open-records laws by holding public meetings with little or no notice and fabricating the minutes of those meetings.

Second-ward council candidate Tim Cusick spoke Monday during the meeting's public comment section, voicing support for the proposed ordinance. "We must take steps to stop the illegal sale of narcotics in our communities," he said, speaking at length about the national opioid crisis. "As the general manager of St. Louis Cremation, I often speak to families who have lost loved ones due to drug overdoses, and I can tell you, it's on the rise. One of my responsibilities is to process the certificates of death when someone has passed away. Just today, I filed certificates for three people, all under the age of 30, in which the cause of death was accidental drug overdose."

A vote on the ordinance is expected at the next council meeting March 26.

Read the draft contract:

Photo by J. Ryne Danielson/Patch