ST. LOUIS • Mayor Francis Slay is calling for a multiagency task force to study ways to prevent wrongful incarcerations like the ones revealed last month by the Post-Dispatch.

Eddie Roth, his chief performance officer, said the newspaper brought into 'sharp focus" the need to reduce the risk that people would be misidentified and held for weeks before their protests are heeded.

The Prisoner Identification Verification and Optimization Team, or PIVOT, will include prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, law enforcement and corrections staff.

Nobody knows yet how many of the 2,000 cases processed by the St. Louis Circuit Court each year are tainted. But the Post-Dispatch easily found four in which someone was charged based on misidentification. Two remained in jail for months.

"Any time these things happen, it's a problem for the system and something that requires focused, sustained attention," said Roth, who is coordinating the task force. He is a onetime president of the Board of Police Commissioners and former Post-Dispatch editorial writer.

The cases highlighted a disorganized system for identifying the correct suspect in an environment where many agencies are involved and the accused commonly use aliases and give other false information.

Cedric M. Wright was arrested in August by police who thought he was a man named Corey D. Leonard, wanted on multiple warrants. It took two months to free Wright even though he documented his identity and Leonard was already locked up.

Dwayne A. Jackson spent a month in jail after his arrest in August 2010 by police looking for someone of the same name. He was picked up again a year later on the same mistake and spent two months behind bars.

Another man was mistakenly charged — but not arrested — because of a prosecutor's clerical error. A fourth man paid $500 to a bondsman to get out of the jail where he was held after his name and birth date came up during a traffic stop as close to someone who was wanted.

James Hacking III, Wright's lawyer in a federal suit against police, jail and sheriff's officials, said he has "cautious optimism" about the new effort. "I wish it was in place long ago," he said. "It might have prevented what happened to Cedric."

In Denver, the American Civil Liberties Union uncovered 503 wrongful incarcerations from 2002-09. Officials partly blamed a disjointed arrest and booking process, according to The Denver Post.

Roth said he has already sought Denver's advice.

"It's complicated and it's hard, but I think it's attainable and we need to figure it out," he explained. He said the task force's findings will be made public.

When the Post-Dispatch interviewed officials last month, police and prosecutors blamed the use of aliases in three of the cases, but not necessarily the alias of the person improperly held.

This week, police noted that the Jackson they arrested has used 22 aliases, nine Social Security numbers and three birth dates. The state agency which issued that warrant did not include fingerprints or other identifying information. Police Maj. Lawrence O'Toole said it is not unusual to have problems when arresting someone for another entity.

"It's a much more complex issue than the public realizes," O'Toole said. "We're not trying to cast blame or deflect it, but there are things that need to be done and I hope these are things that will come out of this task force."

Presiding Judge Steven Ohmer released a statement Wednesday saying the court is "eager to participate in any strategy that will identify persons mistakenly jailed, while keeping those who should be locked up off the street."

In a separate statement, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce lauded the effort and said her office always looks for ways to be more efficient. She wrote, "When a mistake is discovered in my office, we work to take accountability, resolve the matter, learn from it and implement processes or procedures to minimize potential for same mistake again."

Robert Patrick of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.