St. Louis' black police officers' group asks chief to resign

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis' black police officers' association is calling for the city's police chief to resign, claiming he's unfair in managing the department and making promotions.

Homicide unit Sgt. Heather Taylor, president of the Ethical Society of Police, said the group isn't accusing police chief Sam Dotson of racial discrimination, but that his policies have led to racial "disparity" in the force.

In November, the Ethical Society said it lacked confidence in his leadership and may ask him to step down if he didn't make improvements.

"You can't prove that a chief is racist. What you can say is that there are problems internally, problems with morale and with officers being able to have faith in him," Taylor said.

Dotson said he disagrees with the association's assessment and that he'll stay on the job.

"I promote the most qualified candidates regardless of race, and we have a lot of qualified African-American and white officers," Dotson said. "The chief doesn't have a tremendous amount of flexibility. I follow the rules."

The St. Louis Dispatch reported the organization, along with the Firefighters Institute for Racial Equality, planned to formally release a long report detailing their concerns Thursday evening. The Firefighters Institute, which is an organization of black city firefighters, said it plans to release its own more details report this month.

Taylor also said she is frustrated when police used more resources to tackle recent violence downtown, when most killing happen in north St. Louis. She said she's also frustrated by recent police-involved shooting, and police should not take lightly their authority to take another person's life.

Dotson said he has met with the Ethical Society before and will continue to do so.

Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com