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Jeremy Paasch Tamika Nelson Intro to CJ April 15, 2011

Most Dangerous City in America. St. Louis, Missouri to many its home to one of the most successful Major League Baseball team the St. Louis Cardinals and called North Americas Best Sports City says Homestead.com or home of some of the largest privately held corporations like Rent-A-Car, Scottrade, Edward Jones, and also corporate divisions including Anheuser-Busch, Boeing Defense, Energizer and many more. With a population of 319,294 as of 2010 makes it the second-largest city in state of Missouri. St. Louis was founded in 1764 by the French and was acquired by the United States in 1803 by President Thomas Jefferson, as part of the Louisiana Purchase. By 1821 Missouri was a state of the union and on December 9, 1822 St. Louis was incorporated and by 1850s St. Louis became the largest city west of Pittsburgh, and the second-largest port in the country exceeded only by New York. Now dubbed The Most Dangerous City in America by the FBIs Crime Index for 2011 makes it a scary place to travel and live. The City of St. Louis has a mayor-council-type government, with the legislative authority vested in a Board of Aldermen made up of 28 members and the mayor having primary executive authority. In 1808 the first police force was made up by a four man militia just five years after St. Louis became part of the Untied States. Every man eighteen years of age or older were required

to serve four months as a police officer each year or fined one dollar. That only lasted 10 years then they added two more officers who were assigned to night watch. In 1846 the Department of Police is established with two shifts day-shift that consisted of one Lieutenant and seven Officers and night watch consisted of a Captain, six Lieutenants and 48 Officers. In 1866 the department increased in size to 225 as population grew to over 200,000. They didnt get there first telephone system until 1881 that allowed officer to communicate with fellow officers and headquarters and didnt get a police car till 1903 and that year Allen W. Wilkinson and Andrew J. Gordon were the first African-American men appointed to the police department as probationary officers and went allowed to wear a uniform. From 1920-1930 46 police officers died in the line of duty and called the deadliest decade in history, also the Police Band was organized in 1920 and added a new traffic division that had 122 automobiles and 44 motorcycles in 1923. Forensic ballistics was adopted in 1928 and a new headquarters and academy complex opened in 1929. By 1936 the departments had included 22 female officers but werent allowed to arrest or given full status as a police officer until the 1950s and upped the traffic unit to 228 automobiles and 91 motorcycles. Also in the 1950s they established a public relations division that became known as one of the best-functioning program of its kind in the nation. The division consisted of a speakers bureau, published newsletters for the public, organized citizens council, and maintained school contacts, that marked St. Louis as pioneers of public and community relations and even brought other major city police chiefs to St. Louis so they can learn there way so they can go back and use the system in there own cities. St. Louis developed the largest Department-owned library in the nation. In the 1960s and 1970s

was a major transition like adopting a 40 hour work week and education and training became standards rather then the exception and 640 hours of training became the requirement for successful completion of the academy. In 1979 the Hostage Response Unit was formed. In the 1980 with a diminishing budget the Department still met demands of technology like Police Incident Reporting System (P.I.R.S.), Computer Aided Dispatch (C.A.D.) and an automated finger print system (A.F.I.S.) that defined the state of the art communications center. The 90s through today brought new and updated technology like Mobile Data Terminals and new police cars and in 2005 the Department unveiled a 40,000 square foot lab to help with DNA, blood, drug traces, firearms and other crime scene evidence. Today the department has more than 1800 employees whose sole purpose to make the city safer for the millions who call the greater St. Louis metropolitan area home. Some of the major influences come from the public and community relations that have affected many other police departments and still grow with in the department; St. Louis is and will be the leader in this category. When you think of crime you often think why. Is he/she unemployed? In St. Louis the unemployment rate at the end of 2010 was 11.6% the state average was only 9.2%. The average household income for the state is $45,229 while the city is only $34,801 and the house value is low. There are 6% more women then there are men and the population is 47.5% AfricanAmerican, 45.3% White and 3% Hispanic and 2.2% Asian. The most dangerous parts of the city are also the most underdeveloped and are separated into two Bad areas the north side District six and the south District one. There are four gangs in St. Louis Black Mafia Family, Bottoms Gang, Egans Rats and The St. Louis Crime Family giving refuge to the troubled youth and hindering the police from battling crime. When was the last time you said to yourself that you feel down when its crapy weather

outside? Its true the weather makes people feel different. Can that have the same effect on your actions? Take St. Louis Missouri when it rains about seven months out of the year and average rain fall is higher then the national average. With more cloudy days then the national average and about 78%-85% humidity in the morning, tells me I am stepping out in the morning and can feel the moisture in the air and thats all year long! Then there is snow, your looking at about 2-5 of snow in the months between November and March. One of the most destructive and elegant environmental factor is wind. I loathe the wind since it blew out massive trampoline over our fence into the neighbors backyard. In St. Louis has higher wind speeds then the national average and that would make me go nuts. When you look at the facts you cant help but think we react to our environment, but it comes down to what choice you make that determines the outcome not if its raining. So when it come down to it St. Louis isnt as safe as the police department want it to be, but they arent just sitting around either they are facing many of the problems head on. Policing has come along way since the 1800s and we are still making breakthroughs that are changing the way police help Serve and protect. Although some aspects you cant combat like weather and free will to make bad choices. Economics will always be a major factor when it comes to crime and crime prevention. You also have to look at that not all major cities send data to the FBI like Chicago IL who could be on that list of Most Dangerous City in America. Just because the city is on a particular list doesnt mean you cant go there, it just means you have to be carefull just like everywhere else we go there is always danger and crime. Who knows what city will be next on the list.