Cops must keep cool or community pays price

When someone loudly and repeatedly calls you foul names, tells you that your wife and daughter will be performing sex acts, challenges your masculinity and your sexual preference, you’d really need to be a professional to ignore it all and continue doing your job.

Former Washington Park Police officer James Boyd was not up to that challenge on April 11. As a result, the village is paying out an undisclosed settlement to Yancy Carden, 35, of Sikeston, Mo.

Carden and his wife on April 11 had a date night at the Club Hollywood strip club. They were faced with a $200 bar bill, their bank cards were not working and they were arrested.

The video from the police station holding area shows Yancy Carden bleeding, asking for medical attention, kicking walls and a metal bench and telling his wife he was going to sue and get paid. Both of his hands were handcuffed to a chain attached to the wall. He kept baiting Boyd and Boyd cracked.

Boyd was not charged and left Washington Park for other work. State’s Attorney Brendan Kelly said the evidence standard is different in criminal court than in a civil case, and he cited state law about using force to protect property.

The surveillance video shows the station wall denting as Carden kicks it, but Boyd does not use the Taser until five minutes later when Carden is smacking his foot against a metal bench as he questions Boyd’s manhood. Boyd uses the Taser when Carden stands up.

Retired Washington Park Police Sgt. Kevin McAfee blew the whistle after Boyd showed him the video the next day. Whether Boyd was showing off or asking for his superior’s review of his actions is unclear.

McAfee in a deposition contrasted Boyd’s actions to standards in the Metro East Police District Policy Manual, which raises a good point: Increasing that district’s presence and power is exactly what needs to happen for those communities. The district is intended to establish uniform standards, increase training and give the East St. Louis, Alorton, Brooklyn and Washington Park police departments a modern station with secure evidence vaults. What is really warranted is merging all the departments.

Small municipalities are limited in their ability to attract, train, pay and keep professional police officers, so they are all but doomed to pay out settlements. If the four communities do not view better protection of their communities as reason enough to pursue full consolidation, maybe they will do it to ensure financial survival.

This story was originally published December 12, 2015 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Cops must keep cool or community pays price."