A controversial private policing firm is at the center of a lawsuit working its way through the St. Louis court system, with its roots in a fatal shooting in the Carr Square neighborhood three years ago.
The victim was Brittney Young, a mother of seven, whose surviving family members won a significant settlement from the property managers where the shooting took place. Now, those property managers are trying to get The City’s Finest to compensate them for the money they paid to Young’s family, alleging that the security firm’s negligence was responsible for her death.
The lawsuit is of interest to court watchers because The City’s Finest has an unusually high profile in town for a private security company. That they’re staffed largely by off-duty police officers, providing policing while not being subject to government oversight, has been part of the intrigue, as is the fact that their vehicles emblazoned with the word POLICE are easily mistaken for St. Louis Police cruisers. During last week’s hearing in the case, Judge Joan Moriarty herself referred to the company as, “The black and white cars that drive around the city.”…