ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — Veteran St. Louis County Police Officer Keith Wildhaber was promoted to lieutenant on Thursday at a meeting where he was officially tapped to the lead the department's newly formed Diversity and Inclusion Unit.
The department announced last week that the unit will launch on Jan. 1. The statement from the department explained the purpose of the unit is to oversee current diversity efforts in the police department while also creating new ones and appointed Wildhaber to lead it.
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This announcement came less than two months after a jury awarded Wildhaber $19 million in response to a discrimination lawsuit he filed against the county, in which he stated the department passed him over for multiple promotions because he is gay.
Following the jury's decision, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page appointed two new members to the county's police board after promising change at the top.
The creation of the Diversity and Inclusion Unit was a demand the St. Louis County chapter of the NAACP made in mid-November, according to President John Bowman.
"We also would have liked to have input on who that person was," Bowman said. "There was no real dialogue. There was no outreach to the community. There was no outreach to the minority police officers. There was no outreach to the NAACP."
Bowman said he does not feel St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar has shown any "urgency" to push for diversity in the department.
Sergeant Benjamin Granda with St. Louis County told 5 On Your Side that the entire department underwent training in 2014, 2016 and 2019 for racial bias and constitutional law.
However, Bowman said he would have liked to see the department conduct a search for someone with specific training in diversity and inclusion. He said he also would have like to see someone who can empathize with the many complaints he's said he receives about racial discrimination within and from the department.
"I find it hard to believe that he's going to be capable of addressing the needs of all people who are discriminated against," Bowman said. "I'm disappointed."
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