The reports of Heather Taylor’s retirement were premature.
A couple of weeks ago, Taylor, president of the Ethical Society of Police, told various news outlets, including the Post-Dispatch, of her plan to step down as a homicide sergeant in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Metropolitan Police Department after 20 years as a police officer.
Then she found out that the department she had often done public battle with was out to get her — again. In May, Lt. Col. Rochelle Jones filed an employee misconduct report, or EMR, against Taylor, though Taylor hadn’t been notified of the complaint at the time she decided to retire. The charge was that Taylor, in her role as the president of the Ethical Society of Police, had violated the city’s social media policy. Officers who retire with an EMR against them could lose health benefits.
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Make no mistake, much like the folks who run the social media accounts for the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Police Officers Association, Taylor doesn’t mince words when she goes on social media. Often she does so to speak up for the Black officers who are members of her organization, which formed because it didn’t think the department, or its police union, were treating Black officers the same as white officers. One of the reasons Taylor is retiring is because, even in 2020, that’s still the case.
Taylor posted the tweet in question on May 1, amid the rise of the coronavirus pandemic in ºüÀêÊÓƵ. At the time, at least one officer in the traffic division had become severely ill with COVID-19. Taylor and other officers had complained that the department wasn’t following proper protocols to keep officers safe. You might remember that just a week before, Officer Dave Tenorio was released from St. Luke’s Hospital to much fanfare. It was one of those Back the Blue moments, where the entire community applauded the officer (as well as the health care workers who saved his life).
Tenorio was one of the officers that Taylor was standing up for when she went public with her complaint, as well as a couple of others who were members of ESOP. “The Captain and Colonel over Traffic are incompetent,†she wrote on her ESOP Twitter account. “Their decisions nearly cost 2 officers their lives. When officers have complained, they’ve retaliated against the officers for filing complaints. The commanders are women, 1 black and 1 white — ignorance has no demographic.â€
Jones is the Black commander referenced. On Monday, Taylor was exonerated of the complaint. She now plans to retire on Friday. It’s not the first time Jones has been involved in a complaint against Taylor, and that’s why even after she retires, she won’t be completely done with the department. That’s because Taylor has a discrimination lawsuit against the department pending in ºüÀêÊÓƵ Circuit Court. That complaint, too, stems from Taylor talking out of turn, in this case, to me.
In 2016, for about three months, the city’s ShotSpotter program, which alerts the police department to gunshots fired in certain high-crime neighborhoods, was inoperable. Police officers were concerned about it and complained to aldermen, who couldn’t get clear answers from Mayor Francis Slay or police Chief Sam Dotson. I wrote a column about it. Taylor, in her role as president of ESOP, talked to me for the column. She was concerned about the effect on investigating homicides, and quickly finding victims of crime.
For her troubles she got an internal complaint filed against her. Never mind that white police officers talk to reporters, and have for decades, without any discipline. That’s the point her attorney, Brian Love, makes in the lawsuit filed against the city.
“Such discipline was unprecedented in the history of SLMPD,†the lawsuit alleges. “In dozens of instances over the last several years, white employees of the Department have given interviews to various local media outlets in their capacity as police officers without authorization. On information and belief, none of them have been subject to an Internal Affairs charge or disciplined.â€
The city tried and failed to get the lawsuit dismissed. The case is headed to trial or a settlement. To borrow Taylor’s word, it would seem incompetent to take a police officer who was standing up for crime victims to trial because she spoke to a reporter, and, by the way, told the truth.
Settle the case and let Taylor retire in peace. Otherwise, Back the Blue is a meaningless mirage.