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.
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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.”
The City’s Finest has also been the subject of media coverage from reporters such as ProPublica’s Jeremy Kohler and KSDK’s Brent Solomon, with reportage that has varied wildly in tone. Some of it paints the company as a pragmatic solution to neighborhoods and business districts who want more visible police officers on their streets. Other coverage has criticized it as a system in which well-to-do areas are able to pay for the protection and peace of mind the police ought to provide everyone regardless. The company did not respond to emails seeking comment on the lawsuit.
Young was at her grandmother’s house at the Preservation Square Apartments in June 2022 when she heard shots fired. Her children were playing in a common area of the complex and Young was running toward them when a stray bullet struck her in the chest, killing her.
Young’s father, John, filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of himself and his seven grandchildren against McCormack Baron Management, Inc., as well as another property manager, O’Fallon Place, which together run the Preservation Square Apartments. His suit claimed that under the companies’ management, the property had been hit with numerous nuisance violations from the city and that the managers knew hundreds of violent crimes had occurred, yet failed to take adequate safety measures. About two years after his daughter’s death, Young reached a settlement agreement with the companies. The settlement amount was not made public, but last week a lawyer at a hearing in the lawsuit now taking place between McCormack Baron and The City’s Finest described it as very large.
McCormack Baron and O’Fallon Place are now suing The City’s Finest, saying the policing firm should have to compensate them for the settlement amount. Their lawsuit accuses the company of negligence and breach of contract.
The property managers say they repeatedly asked The City’s Finest to monitor the complex’s known problem areas more closely and to break up large groups hanging out there. They specifically told the firm that the Cochran Place area, where the shooting occurred, was a crime hotspot and requested extra patrols there to deter criminal activity.
On the night of the shooting, the suit alleges, even though the property managers had asked for increased patrols, The City’s Finest conducted only two perfunctory sweeps in the 90 minutes leading up to Brittney Young’s death. Officers reportedly drove past the group gathered in the Cochran Place common area that later began shooting.
The City’s Finest does not deny being paid to patrol the area, but it has argued in court filings that its contract with the complex was no longer in effect, having been terminated after one year. By 2022, the relationship was more akin to a fee-for-service one, with the property managers paying $80 an hour per officer for patrols, as well as for additional services.
McCormack Baron argues that even though there was no formal written renewal of the contract, its renewal was implied by The City’s Finest continuing to patrol the complex, and the property managers continuing to pay them to do so. “TCF itself recognized the security services were for McCormack Baron and never questioned a check from McCormack Baron paying for TCF’s security services,” the property management company’s attorney Zachary Vaughn wrote in court filings. The property managers also cite a deposition of St. Louis police officer Thomas Kitchell, who also worked the Preservation Square job for The City’s Finest. Kitchell said that from 2011 until 2024, the services the company provided to Preservation Square remained more or less unchanged—other than when services had to be halted on occasions when too many of The City’s Finest’s invoices went unpaid.
The City’s Finest has also argued that it is protected under Missouri’s economic loss doctrine, which limits the types of lawsuits that can be brought by a party claiming purely financial losses—as opposed to, say, personal injury or wrongful death suits like the one brought by John Young, in which the losses extend beyond money.
Judge Moriarty said at the end of the hearing last week that she’d take under consideration various motions, including the one involving economic loss doctrine.
The City’s Finest was founded by a former city homicide detective, Rob Betts. In April 2024, about two years after Young’s death and five months before McCormack Baron sued The City’s Finest, Betts emailed McCormack Baron manager Deon Williams expressing reservations about a proposed new indemnity agreement between the two entities.
Betts wrote, “The scope of liability is far too broad, implying that TCF should be liable for any and all crimes, injury and/or property damage that occurs on MB properties. This is simply not realistic. The fact is, crimes will occur, regardless if TCF, the SLMPD or any organization are present or nearby. TCF can’t be the ‘fall guy’ every time MB is sued.”
