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   It's one of the biggest parades of the year in St. Louis.   The 125th annual Annie Malone May Day Parade will march through downtown Sunday afternoon.

   In light of recent violence at a New Orleans parade and the Boston Marathon bombing, St. Louis police are adjusting their security plan.  Police Chief Sam Dotson says the plan includes both plain clothed and uniformed officers and communications with FBI and state law enforcement officers.

   "It includes an intelligence component," Dotson said.  "Are there any threats against the parade? And the first answer to that is no, there aren't."

   Dotson says parade goers can play a role in keeping the event safe by leaving their guns at home, and paying attention to their surroundings.   Dotson says police will be very visible along the parade route Sunday and if parade-goers see someone acting strangely, like wearing a long coat or a trench coat that's inappropriate for the weather, they should point that individual out to an officer.

   Parade organizers say they've also contracted private security for the event.

 

The man who's accusing a St. Louis police officer of using excessive force during a July arrest, is again in custody. Thirty-six year old Jerrmaine Lacy was arrested yesterday just after he finished testifying at Officer Charles Proctor's disciplinary hearing.

Chief Sam Dotson acknowledges that a letter from the officer's attorney, Chet Pleban, precipitated Lacy's arrest on four outstanding warrants.

Lacy is accusing Officer Proctor of choking him and slamming his head into a patrol car bumper during a trespassing arrest at Lumiere Place Casino last July. Two of the four-outstanding warrants against Lacy stem from that arrest.

A shake up may be coming to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department -- that is, if Police Chief Sam Dotson has his way.

The chief wants to dismantle and reorganize some specialized units - moving members of the Rapid Deployment Unit into precincts, and putting gang unit detectives under a single command working from the downtown headquarters. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Chief Dotson will ask the Board of Police Commissioners Wednesday for permission to make those changes and to put SWAT, narcotics and drug task force officers under the same command as patrol officers.

Dotson told the paper that the moves will make the department more flexible.

He's also expected to ask for permission to accept donations to beef up hot-spot policing efforts.