ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the St. Louis Circuit Court's Juvenile Division reached an agreement this week to clarify the process of handling juvenile suspects in criminal cases.
The agreement was signed by Police Chief Robert Tracy and Court Administrator Nathan Graves and clarified the process already in place for police and the courts to follow when juveniles are arrested in connection with crimes.
One of the clarifications was a requirement to bring juvenile suspects into court in person if they are suspected of felony offenses or need to be held in juvenile detention. The agreement also said officers could only call the juvenile division's intake office to request an offender's criminal history or to ask whether the juvenile is wanted in connection with other crimes.
The agreement comes more than a month after an incident at City Foundry STL highlighted miscommunication in the system.
In late January, police said a passenger in a car repeatedly fired a rifle in the direction of three teen boys and two police officers near City Foundry.
Police told us a 15-year-old boy had a Glock 29 equipped with an auto sear on him. That made the gun fully automatic. Officers also said they found a stolen Glock 19 on a 16-year-old boy.
A court spokesman said the teens were released to their families because procedures between the court and police department were not followed. He said because the officers only called and did not bring them to court for detention, they were released.
A Public Safety Department spokesperson said police followed "followed longstanding precedent when calling the Family Court's intake staff to report apprehended juveniles just as the Family Court's intake staff followed longstanding precedent by telling officers to release them to their parents."
The memorandum signed earlier this week hopes to clear that miscommunication.
In addition to solidifying the process for juvenile detention, the memorandum also said officers "always have the option of presenting youths to the Juvenile Division for charges and/or detention."
The Executive Director Of The Criminal Justice Coordinating Council Nicolle Barton said they still have to follow the point system method when dealing with juveniles which can limit what police and courts can do.
"There is a point system that's governed by state statute. And our gun laws in the state of Missouri allow our juveniles to carry guns. And so when the point system was developed, it wasn't really taking into account the gun laws that we have in Missouri," Barton said.
Barton said the council wants to try and get more services to these teens who are struggling.
"I believe there's a lot of youth in our community that are dealing with trauma. Trauma that they face everyday substance abuse, mental health illnesses. And so we want to be able to identify that and we want to be able to provide our youth with the services that they need moving into the future as well," Barton said.
Chief Tracy discussed some of the efforts to reevaluate the juvenile detention system at an Urban League event last week, hoping to go beyond arrest or release.
"Let's find out what's going on with these kids rather than releasing them right away let's talk to the parents and also talk to the kids and see if there's things we can do to help so they don't go out and re-offend. I want to protect them as well," Tracy said.