covid snitches missouri
A spree of social media posts this week warn that St. Louis County released the information it got from people who reported businesses in violation of the stay-at-home order.

The document, released in response to a Sunshine Law request, included names and contact information of the people making the reports. In their messages, some asked for anonymity.

Posts and comments in response to the document invited retaliation against the people who utilized the county's inbox for tips about non-essential businesses that stayed open.

The I-Team's PJ Randhawa talked with a woman whose tip was among those released. Patricia asked that we not use her last name, because she fears what someone might do with the information in the document.


We're in a society where doing what's right doesn't always get rewarded," she said.

Patricia has lupus. Two other people in her house have autoimmune issues.

"We have to be extra careful because we don't have the strength to fight this," she said. "I saw a lot of businesses that were non-essential that were open and had lines outside, parking lots filled as if the order didn't matter to them. And that was kinda frustrating."

Tips flood in after county asks for help

What Patricia did is exactly what St. Louis County intended when it established two ways for people to submit tips on non-compliant businesses. County government announced the creation of an online form and a dedicated email address for those tips in the last week of March.

In a little over a week, those channels received more than 900 tips from the public, the released documents show. Among the complaints are employees and their family members asking for anonymity because they feared backlash from employers.