Former Fairview Heights officer challenges Watson for St. Clair County sheriff
Edgar Ellis made history nearly 30 years ago when he became the first Black police officer in Fairview Heights. Now he’s hoping to become the first Black sheriff of St. Clair County.
Ellis is challenging Rick Watson, the candidate endorsed by the St. Clair County Democrats organization, in the Democratic primary next month. Watson has held the office since 2012.
Ellis, 64, of Belleville, said he’s focused not on race or politics but on improving the sheriff’s department.
“I don’t want to be a politician’s chief,” he said. “I look around, and I don’t see the sheriff’s department with a large enough footprint in this area. I just don’t see it. You see the local guys, and lately you’ve been seeing a lot of state police, but not the sheriff’s department.”
Ellis said he’s a big fan of community policing, including mentoring programs to help keep youths out of trouble and collaboration with neighborhood watch groups.
Another one of his priorities would be technological upgrades, including more drones and real-time cameras in some locations. He called the St. Clair County Jail “inadequate.”
“I think it needs to be replaced or rebuilt,” he said. “It’s just not big enough. They’re always overpopulated, and that creates a safety issue for the detainees and the staff.”
Ellis has spent the past eight years as a security officer at Belleville West High School.
Before that, he worked as a police officer in East St. Louis and Fairview Heights, taught at JTC Academy and served as Washington Park’s assistant police chief before joining campus police at Lindenwood University, where he earned a master’s degree in criminal justice.
“I still have a desire to make a difference in law enforcement,” he said.
The St. Clair County Board appointed Watson to complete the last two years of longtime Sheriff Mearl Justus’ term. Justus, 81, retired and died a week later from health problems.
As of press time, Watson hadn’t responded to an invitation to be featured in a BND candidate profile.
Part of Belleville investigation
Ellis grew up in East St. Louis, the youngest of four boys. His parents were highly educated teachers and community activists. He attended Assumption Catholic High School before earning a business administration degree at Wiley University in Texas.
Ellis said he was working as a cashier at State Community College in 1990, when East St. Louis hired him and 10 other men to beef up its police force. He worked as an undercover drug agent, a school resource officer and a neighborhood patrolman.
“I really enjoyed the community aspect, and that guided the rest of my career,” he said. “I got to know people and why they were doing what they were doing. It made me less judgmental and more understanding.”
In his view, gaining the trust of local residents is key to helping police get information and solve crimes.
Ellis said he applied for a job with the Belleville Police Department at one point, but he wasn’t hired, and that later led to inquiries by state and federal investigators.
The BND had published a series of stories revealing the existence of a secret Belleville police patrol whose job was to stop, question and ticket Black drivers coming into town. It also was discovered that the city hadn’t hired any Black employees in its 175-year history.
Fallout from the series led to a federal lawsuit and an agreement by the city to hire more Black employees and send its police officers to racial-sensitivity training to avoid further litigation.
Ellis said investigators showed him a copy of his application, on which someone had written the word “black” in the upper right-hand corner. The city offered him a job in 1997.
“They were under court order,” Ellis said. “All those people who were denied the opportunity who were otherwise qualified, (city officials) were required to offer them a job.
“But by that time, I had already been offered a job in Fairview Heights. So I went to the place where I felt like they wanted me. I just didn’t feel comfortable going to work in Belleville.”
12 years in Fairview Heights
Ellis worked 12 years in Fairview Heights, finding the most enjoyment in community policing and coordinating a Police and Children Together (PACT) summer camp.
Ellis said he resigned because prosecutors and his superiors were unhappy with him for testifying in a court case involving his brother, who had been charged with election-related fraud.
“They didn’t like me testifying on my brother’s behalf,” he said, adding that he had served only as a character witness and didn’t condone any alleged criminal activity.
Ellis described teaching at JTC Academy, formerly the Juvenile Transition Center, as “exhausting” but rewarding. He supervised nine teenage boys with behavior problems and became a mentor, getting to know their families and inviting them to attend his church.
That experience and others made Ellis a big supporter of DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and other activities focused on youths.
“I would like to make sure we have programs to deter our young people, before they start making bad decisions, before they commit crimes, before they become detainees,” he said.
Ellis said he planned to run for sheriff as an independent in 2014, but he found the task of collecting enough signatures on petitions insurmountable. At that time, a Democratic candidate needed 600 names, a Republican needed 250 and an independent needed 6,600.
The three “pillars” of his current campaign are safety, integrity and accountability.
Ellis promises that one of his first actions as sheriff would be to conduct a “position audit” to determine if jobs are distributed properly and if employees are doing what they should be doing.
The primary election is March 17. No one else has entered the sheriff’s race as a Republican or write-in candidate for the primary or November general election, according to the St. Clair County clerk’s office.
“I’m running as a Democrat, but I don’t have the party backing me,” Ellis said. “So I’m running an independent campaign as a Democrat. It’s a grassroots campaign.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2026 at 5:30 AM.
