ST. LOUIS — Earlier this year, two men who had long been at odds stepped to the lectern and together announced support for the state takeover of the St. Louis Police Department.
Officer Stephen "Jay" Schroeder is chief of the St. Louis Police Officers Association. Sgt. Donnell Walters is president of the Ethical Society of Police. Their organizations both represent St. Louis police officers and have long quarreled over issues of race, justice and equality.
But in recent months, the two groups have begun to mend old wounds, at least in part over a shared effort to support legislation that would return control of the police department to a state commission.