Gov. Matt Blunt is “extremely disturbed.” He’s not disturbed enough.

Mayor Francis Slay is angry, but not angry enough.

Stephen Pollihan, the acting chief of police is apologetic. He should be.

The Board of Police Commissioners is disappointed. Colonels, take a look in your mirrors.

A politically-connected towing operation shortchanged the city by nearly $700,000 over two years, and nobody noticed it until Post-Dispatch reporters started nosing around.

Innocent people had their cars stolen by deceit, and some people within the police department may have been complicit. This is a very big deal.

Our Post-Dispatch colleagues Joe Mahr, Jeremy Kohler and David Hunn are doing superb reporting on this story, but somebody should have figured this out long before the newspaper came along. If only somebody at police headquarters were trained in investigating crimes.

Something is rotten at Tucker and Clark. City police officers are on the streets doing dangerous work without a lot of help, but inside police headquarters, the brass loses track of 700 grand. Let a cop discharge his weapon, and internal affairs is all over it. Let the brass lose 700 grand, let citizens get ripped off, and folks are “disturbed” and “disappointed.”

Not good enough. It’s time for heads to roll.

City taxpayers could be out more than $700,000. Complete records for transactions before August 2006 weren’t available to the Post-Dispatch, even though Metropolitan Towing Co. has been impounding cars for the police since 1990.

The company is supposed to collect fees and fines from people recovering their cars and split the money 50-50 with the city. Between August 2006 and April of this year alone, the Post-Dispatch found that Metropolitan impounded nearly 15,000 cars and returned 10,000 of them to their owners. But Metropolitan told the police department it had returned only 3,700 vehicles.

And it’s not as if police brass weren’t warned that the towing contract could be a problem. In 1994, Joseph Miklovic, then the police department’s budget director, complained of lax oversight of the towing contract, missing paperwork and high fees. An outside auditing firm recommended reviewing Metropolitan’s contract every year, and the Missouri auditor’s office recommended seeking bids from other companies.

Both recommendations were ignored. Instead, Mr. Miklovic left the department in 2000, and the next year Lt. Col. Joe Mokwa was named chief of police. In 2007, the police board asked for new towing bids, specifying, among other things, that companies had to have 1,000 parking spaces. Those specifications meant that only Metropolitan qualified.

As much as the missing money is a problem, there’s a larger issue: Mr. Mahr and Mr. Kohler reported Sunday that St. Louis police aggressively impounded cars used in crimes and had them towed to Metropolitan’s lot. Such cars are supposed to be held no longer than 30 days unless they’re needed as evidence or unless prosecutors prove that cars have been used in crimes with the owners’ knowledge.

But police officers often put “holds” on cars without citing a reason. Tow lot workers told car owners they had to produce extra paperwork to get their vehicles. They imposed extra red tape on powerless people. They claimed that drivable cars had been wrecked. Often vehicle owners, banks and finance companies gave up the fight.

Metropolitan then sold the cars through its sales arm, Parks Auto Sales. Favored customers, including Mr. Mokwa’s daughter and an unknown number of police officers, got the free use of cars for extended periods. Sometimes, they bought them at generous discounts.

In the end, a lot of innocent St. Louisans — people whose cars had been used in a crime without their knowledge and many whose vehicles were not used in crimes at all — essentially had their cars stolen from them by deceit. Many were left on the hook for big bank loans they kept paying off. Some were forced into bankruptcy. All of them were humiliated.

Who are they going to ask for help? The police?

Mr. Mokwa, having negotiated a six-figure severance package in exchange for not contesting his forced resignation, left the department in late July after the Police Board said he had misled them about what he knew about his daughter’s use of Metropolitan’s cars and about his relationship with the owners of the towing company. The Police Board then asked U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway to investigate the towing contract.

Last week, the Police Board asked the U.S. attorney to look into the missing $700,000 as well. Gov. Matt Blunt, who appoints the police commissioners, asked the state auditor to look into the matter, and acting Police Chief  Pollihan said an internal audit is underway.

Through his attorney, Mr. Mokwa said he never knew about the missing money and blamed the oversight problems on the Police Board.

Three words to them all: Pass. The. Buck.

Trained investigators armed with badges, weapons and the power of subpoena shouldn’t need very long to sort this out. Being disturbed, angry, disappointed and apologetic is fine. Getting serious would be better.