State Police Patrols First of Kind

State police patrols in East St. Louis began in July, 1986, on the orders of the governor and at the request of Mayor Carl Officer who said the city needed help because it could not patrol the interstates. The assignment is unique in the annals of state police history. Capt. Bobby Henry, District 11 commander of the Illinois State Police, recites that mission and its accomplishments.

"I think we have had substantial impact on the city. I think the things that prompted us to go in there were the high incidence of crime, some of that crime spilling out onto the interstate highway system that traverses East St. Louis to the extent that we had people who would bump the side of the car or rear end you.

"The thing we're all told to do if we have an accident is pull over and exchange driver information, right? Wrong! This was the time for rape, robbery, sometimes a combination of the above. We thought there had to be something done. At that time the governor approved the Illinois State Police at the request of Mayor Officer to come into the city.

"Since July 21, 1986, through Sept. 9, 1990, we have made 5,156 criminal arrests, from murder on down to lesser criminal offenses. We have written 26,725 traffic citations, we have issued 454,237 written warnings for lesser traffic violations, a total of 71,96 total contacts.

"I think that with the aggressive enforcement posture that we have taken and the thrust of the gang crimes unit that we had down there for awhile, and now we have the housing detail working the narcotics and the drugs ... yes I think we have made East St. Louis a better place to live."

Sixteen officers work usually five cars in East St. Louis. The men ride one man to a car and back one another up closely. "Do they still need five cars on the street, or are that many needed to protect the policemen?" I asked.

"We need that number for officer safety. We probably would have scaled down and adjusted the officer allocation before if we could, but in all honesty the 16 are approved by the governor and we are locked in at 16, even if you or I thought we could be out of there with five. We would have to have the approval of the governor before we made any change in our commitment to East St. Louis."

Last year, the year before, shots were being fired all night long. Henry said he hasn't seen much of that this year.

"City police I think are doing better," Henry said. "For a long time there those guys weren't getting paid. How long can you expect a guy to work and keep his chin up with no pay? It's tough to keep motivation up. They are taking a more positive and aggressive approach. What we saw recently with the guys volunteering their own time to come back for a sweep of street corners, they are to be commended for that. In time I think we'll see even more improvement in the turn around of the problem."

The "bailout" funds are to go in part for the police department. Will they help?

"We hope so. Time will see the answer.

"This is one of the most challenging assignments of my career, to maintain a specialized detail in an area like that for this length of time. Never in the history of the Illinois state police has that been done. Sure we went into Cairo, and we went into Waukegan when they went on strike. Of course you know what the problem was in Cairo. But historically, this is a first.

"We have taken over 300 weapons out of traffic stops in East St. Louis just with those 16 troopers. So you know that doesn't occur every day. To have that level of intensity with the types of weapons we've taken, the variety of weapons, Mini Macs, Mini-Uzi's, automatic type weapons that these officers know they are faced with, and they know we are dealing with people on their way to prison or have gotten out of prison, street smart and tougher to deal with ... It is a high risk area."

"Is East St. Louis really all that dangerous, especially in the daytime?" I asked.

"I wouldn't recommend it. You know, why drive across a bridge that you know is not safe to drive across; if it is approved for 2,000 pounds, why see if you can drive a semi across? If you know there is a problem, and I know a lot of people do, and you'd be surprised at the number of young ladies, young girls, in the 18, 20-year bracket, coming- over from Missouri by themselves into areas such as Rush City to buy drugs. It's almost like hanging a sign around their neck 'Rob me, beat me, rape me' type thing. They just don't realize the severity and magnitude of it.

"I don't think it is as bad, especially in the daytime, as it was.

"My wife worked down there in one of the governmental buildings for awhile and I was never comfortable with her working there. She no longer works there and I am very, very happy."

Capt. Henry said he thought East St. Louis is off on a more positive avenue now. "I hope they continue to do that. When you look around on the west side of the river, St. Louis is all developed and you have to go a long way to get out of the developed area. You circle on this side of the river and everything within that circle is developed other than that one area. That area is a prime area, prime property.

"It is a shame they (East St. Louisans) don't really take the bull by the horn and take the leadership to move that city ahead. It could again be the place to live and the place to shop. Look across at the St. Louis side, there's no reason this side can't mirror what you see on the St. Louis side. We may not see it in the length of time that I have left, but I think it's got to come back. Because it's like a big eyesore or a big cesspool sitting in the middle of a total economic developed area. I don't see how it can continue to sit there without getting cleaned up and shaped up."

State Police Sgt. Roger Hayes had told me that police are only dealing with two per cent of the population, the other 98 per cent are generally law abiding. He said he had been flagged down to be told by East St. Louisans they were glad state police were there.

"I used to ride the streets down there myself, be down there with the guys and know what they had to cope with and that sort of thing, Henry said. "I've even issued tickets and had people thank me and say 'Well, I really don't want the ticket but I want to thank you for being here'."

Township Supervisor Will McGaughy said there are only 20 to 30 'bad guys" in the city, the rest of the trouble makers are "punks" who could be turned around if there were jobs, I told Henry.

"He's simplistically stating it. He's on target on some of it, with the job aspect. But if those kids really wanted a job, they could find a job, I think. The other aspect is how can you and I convince some of these kids to go out and work for a minimum wage job when they know they can make $100 or $200 a day in the blink of an eye selling drugs? What I am saying, I'm not condoning what they are doing, but it's hard to convince those kids to work for minimum wage when they know that $100 to $200 dealing drugs on a street corner is very easily achieved.

"I can take you to St. Clair Square Mall Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, and I can point out these kids with a thousand to two thousand dollars worth of jewelry around their neck. The average kid, unless their parents are rich, can only be doing one thing to afford that jewelry. Do your children run around with that kind of gold around their neck? How do they get it unless it is gotten illegally?"

Roger's percentage may be a little bit low, but the basic concept is good, there are a lot of good decent people, especially the older people, who live in East St. Louis. That is their home. None of us want to give up our home, none of us want to be relocated to other parts of the country or other towns that surround there and give away everything ... this is home, this is where I want to be. There are good decent people trapped there; they are trapped there due to shear economic necessity.