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World of Hurt

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St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce says her staff recalls eleven instances in which St. Louis police have applied for warrants against their own in domestic-violence cases. In five of those cases, prosecutors didn't press charges, and state law prohibits Joyce from discussing them. In four of the other six cases, the charges were either dropped or the defendants were acquitted or received suspended sentences; again, state law mandates official silence and sealed records.

The other two cases include John McKenzie, a fomer sergeant, who is facing charges of abuse of a child, unlawful use of a weapon and third-degree assault for allegedly pointing a shotgun at his two daughters in August 2002. McKenzie had already lost his state peace officer's license owing to a shoplifting conviction when the alleged crimes occurred.

In the other case, former officer Roscoe Jackson Jr., who had been charged with felony abuse of a child, was convicted of misdemeanor assault in 2000 for choking and punching his fourteen-year-old son. There were signs of trouble in Jackson's family life before he joined the St. Louis Police Department. One month before he was hired in 1994, he filed for an order of protection against his girlfriend. In his court petition, Jackson admitted he might be a danger himself, saying there had been "physical contact on both parties." Added Jackson: "I don't want to do anything to cause harm to myself or her." Five years later the girlfriend, who by then was married to Jackson, obtained a protective order after she alleged he'd broken down a door and threatened to kill her. The order remained in effect for six months, and Jackson remained a St. Louis police officer. He resigned from the force on October 21, 2000, two days after a jury found him guilty of assaulting his son. The Missouri Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission (POST), which licenses police officers in Missouri, placed his license on probation for five years after the conviction, but Jackson remains eligible for employment by any law-enforcement agency in the state.

In St. Louis County, police spokesman Rick Eckhardt says that in the twenty years he's been on the 750-member force, he can recall only one domestic-violence case involving an officer. That was the case of former officer Thomas Zeigler, who has been charged with assault for allegedly shooting a fellow officer last year. A few months before the shooting, Zeigler checked into a hospital for a mental evaluation after a dispute with his wife, who told Jefferson County sheriff's deputies that he had broken down a door and threatened to shoot himself. Zeigler wasn't charged with a crime in the incident but was ordered into counseling. He also was permitted to continue mentoring new officers as a field-training instructor. (For more about the Zeigler case, see "Shot in the Act" in the December 24, 2003, issue of the Riverfront Times.)

Jeremy Spratt, executive director of the Missouri Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission (POST), says the commission doesn't track cases of officer-involved domestic violence, so he can't say how many officers have had their licenses revoked or placed on probation because of violence in their households. Records at the state Administrative Hearing Commission, which conducts hearings to determine whether officers should be disciplined, show that since 1999 ten officers have had their licenses revoked or put on probationary status owing to domestic violence. Offenses range from violating a court order to beatings that resulted in criminal convictions. None of those disciplined came from St. Louis County or the city of St. Louis, the region's two largest police agencies.

Research on domestic violence in police households is scant. The two most comprehensive studies are more than a decade old. That data, however, indicates violence in police households may be more pervasive than in the civilian population.

In the late 1980s, Arizona State University researchers surveyed 728 officers and 479 spouses from five East Coast police departments and found that 40 percent of the officers (who were granted anonymity) reported they'd acted violently toward a family member during the preceding six months. In 1992, with the help of a psychologist specializing in domestic violence, the Tucson Police Department interviewed 385 male officers from departments in the southwest. Twenty-eight percent admitted they'd been violent toward a spouse during the preceding year. The same researchers subsequently surveyed 891 policemen at a Fraternal Order of Police conference and found that 24 percent had engaged in violent behavior toward their spouse during the past year, ranging from pushing to threatening with a knife or gun. By way of comparison, a telephone survey funded by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention four years ago showed that 1.8 percent of 8,000 women randomly surveyed had been assaulted, raped or stalked by a significant other during the previous year.

Given that no one has conducted a thorough statistical study of police families, no one knows the extent of abuse within officers' households, the IACP's Aviva Kurash says, but that doesn't really matter. "Police officers are part of the general population, so it's at least as much as the general population, is what we say. As long as there's any amount of this going on, it's unacceptable."

To help prevent violence, the IACP recommends that departments regularly train officers on spotting signs of domestic violence and also provide them -- and their families -- with information about how to seek help before problems escalate to violence and careers are jeopardized. Such outreach and education efforts, the IACP states, should begin as soon as a recruit joins the force and continue periodically throughout his tenure.

Rita Zagarri says she'd like to see St. Louis police step up education efforts, especially in the rank and file.

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