R.J. Matson/Post-Dispatch

On Tuesday afternoon, after Missouri Auditor Susan Montee released an audit critical of the St. Louis Police Department’s business practices, we intended to confront Police Chief Daniel Isom and Todd Epsten, chairman of the Board of Police Commissioners, with what we believed is the issue at the core of the department’s problems: How it’s governed. To our surprise, Mr. Epsten beat us to the punch.

“I believe it’s time to look at the government and structure of this organization,” he said. “I think there are legitimate questions about whether the system we’ve had in place for 150 years is still viable.”

What he has in mind, he said, is beginning “informal conversations” about police governance, including whether and how the Missouri Legislature should be asked to return control to the city. He offered no suggestions about how this would be done or whether specific recommendations should be made to the Legislature. He said only that the conversation should begin.

Nearly all of the findings in Ms. Montee’s audit had been reported previously, most of them by the Post-Dispatch’s Jeremy Kohler and Joe Mahr: The department’s failure to return $4 million seized in felony cases that had been improperly held; the department’s failure to monitor its contract with a downtown towing company, which shortchanged taxpayers by what the Post-Dispatch calculates is nearly $700,000 and led to the resignation last year of Police Chief Joe Mokwa; lack of controls to prevent theft from the evidence room; the purchase of gold-plated badges for high-ranking officers and lax controls over the use of department-issued credit cards.

Mr. Epsten said that Mr. Isom had been selected as chief precisely because he had a strategic plan to correct its business operations. He is satisfied that most of the shortcomings have been corrected.

It is important to note that the department’s core mission — protecting the public — has not been seriously affected by any of its business shortcomings. But the steady drumbeat of bad news, which also includes nine officers accused of federal or state crimes in the last 11 months and four other discharged for improper conduct, is hurting the department’s image.

The police department is no ordinary business, Mr. Epsten noted. Ordinary businesses don’t deal with life and death, put people into prison, protect civil rights and deal with intractable social problems. But an agency with a $140.7 million budget this year — 31 percent of the city’s general revenue budget — must be run according to strict business practices.

Day-to-day operations are the responsibility of the chief of police, who oversees civilian employees,  a chief of staff and administrative officers, many of whom also are police officers. Mr. Isom has a doctorate in criminal justice and a master’s degree in public administration, but not every good cop makes a good business leader.

The police board — made up of the mayor and four people appointed by the governor — oversees business operations. The board also is the final arbiter over civilian complaints about officers. The police board has a secretary, also a police officer, who coordinates the enormous paper flow.

Mr. Epsten is CEO of Major Brands, Missouri’s largest liquor distributor, but police commissioners often don’t have that sort of high-level business experience. Very few can keep up with the paper. This might have been possible in 1861, when the state took control away from the city as the Civil War began, but these days, five people working part-time, $100-a-month gigs cannot properly oversee a $140 million business.

The result, said one former top commander, is that the department has a “crisis culture.” The department responds to each day’s biggest problem. That must change.

St. Louis Patrolman H.M Jones in 1884. (Missouri History Museum)

Returning control of the police department to the city is imperative — not just because the city pays the bills, but because it is time for governance reform that the governor and Legislature have neither the time nor the interest in doing.

Local control has been a mantra for many in the St. Louis community for a long time. But what exactly does “local control” mean, particularly in St. Louis, which has one of the most convoluted city governments in the nation?

• Does it mean that the police department, like the fire department, would go under the aegis of the Department of Public Safety, reporting directly to the mayor? Given the uproar over Mayor Francis Slay’s demotion of Fire Chief Sherman George in 2007, we don’t see that happening without a fight.
• Since 2006, the police department budget has gone through the city budget process without input from the Legislature. But with many police jobs and promotions at stake, and the budget first going through the 28-member Board of Aldermen and then the three-member Board of Estimate and Apportionment, the politics of local control could get ugly.
• Police pensions might become an even bigger issue than they already are, and that’s considerable. Nearly $12 million of the police budget goes to pensions, and with every bump in police pensions comes an automatic bump for fire department pensions.
• Who would make decisions about disciplining officers? Some in the community have advocated for a civilian review board, but that power still lies with the police board.
• Should the police department have a civilian chief financial officer with day-to-day responsibility for making things run smoothly? What happens if law enforcement priorities conflict with budget responsibilities? Who gets the final say?
• In 2004, a well-intentioned and badly needed reform of the City Charter was placed before voters. It failed by a 3-to-1 margin. Voter approval might not be needed to change police governance, but if it is, getting it might be hard.
• Speaking of hard: Reforming police governance in St. Louis would best be done on a metro-wide basis. The city and county police departments should be consolidated; the 60 municipal police departments should be invited in. The result would be better and more professional policing at less cost.

Let the conversation and the controversy begin. One way to do it would take the form of a blue-ribbon panel appointed by the governor to investigate best practices in other cities and make recommendations. Its work would need to be funded, possibly by the business community. It would need to be open and inclusive, aimed at developing a consensus that would be presented to the Legislature.

It would take a lot of serious work by a lot of serious people. But Appomattox was 144 years ago. It is time.