Most Black St. Louisians have a family reunion shirt in their wardrobe. These shirts recognize not only familial branches, but Black St. Louisians’ connection to places that make up the former Confederacy. My family reunion shirts recognize places like Mobile, Alabama; Columbia, South Carolina; and Arlington, Virginia.
Like family reunion shirts, St. Louis police department operations have roots in the former Confederacy. Missouri took over control of St. Louis’s police department during the Civil War because the state’s governor, Claiborne Jackson, feared the city would use its arsenal to help the Union. After 151 years of state control, advocates of local control got a statewide measure on the November ballot in 2012 allowing for local control with a broad understanding that residents and their police force should be directly connected. Missourians across the state overwhelmingly supported the ballot measure providing St. Louis residents with local control over their police department.
There is a concerted effort to return St. Louis to the Confederate era policy of state control. Last week, Lawrence Jones from the conservative morning talk show Fox & Friends came to St. Louis to talk about crime. He was joined by state senator Nick Schroer, who represents St. Charles. The reason for the visit from the talk show host and the state senator is clear.
Sen. Schroer filed a bill this year in the Missouri state legislature, SB 808, that would remove control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department from the city’s residents, instead handing it to a state-appointed board. He had come to our city to talk with Fox & Friends to try to paint St. Louis as a lawless land with defunded police and a complacent administration, justifying his attempt to take control of the police department in a city he doesn’t live in.
His assertions, and the subsequent coverage by Fox News, couldn’t be further from the truth.
Funding for public safety has increased and crime has decreased in St. Louis. Under the administration of Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, St. Louis police officers received historic raises that brought them to parity with surrounding areas.
However, anyone invested in preventing and reducing crime knows that more police funding isn’t the only answer. The police are essential to a comprehensive law enforcement strategy, but enforcement isn’t the only necessary part of crime prevention.
As outlined in the mayor’s 2024 State of Public Safety report, the support for police officers is accompanied with an investment in violence prevention and intervention efforts, which take the burden off police to respond to every call and turn their focus to violent crime. Through the combination of these efforts under the leadership of Police Chief Robert J. Tracy, St. Louis experienced a 21% drop in homicides and 22% drop in overall part one crimes, as well as a 47% drop in youth gun violence in 2023.
Not only is crime down in St. Louis, but crime levels are lower than pre-pandemic levels and the number of homicides are the lowest in a decade. The decrease in homicides in 2023 was one of the largest drops in homicides in the past 90 years.
This past year, Kansas City, the only city in the country under state control, marked a grim milestone, when the city recorded more deaths by homicide in 2023 than any year ever recorded. Nationally, homicides fell by 10 percent in 2023. In St. Louis, homicides fell by 21 percent. It’s important to note that Kansas City is the only city in the state of Missouri under state control.
It would be irresponsible to deny that crime is an issue in St. Louis. But it would be more irresponsible to allow legislators from outside the city to wrest control of our police department away from St. Louis citizens and destroy the significant progress Mayor Jones’ administration has made in reducing and preventing crime in our city.
Let’s not go back to Confederacy-era policing policies. Instead, let’s continue to implement the crime reduction and prevention policies that we know are working, and make St. Louis a safe and thriving city for all.
Jared Boyd is chief of staff of the office of Mayor Tishaura Jones.
This article is very pro Mayor Jones because if I understand correctly it was written by her chief of staff or deputy chief of staff.
It doesn’t address the 3 years of chaos at the justice center created by her appointee.
Furthermore, it doesn’t address the FBI investigation into her building department.
St. Louis, from the outside is looked at as being a city in chaos in my opinion.
Considering the previous circuit attorney dereliction of duty, school system in utter dismay and city’s perception of providing basic services.
It is noticeable that under previous administrations there was no talk or urgency to take back control of the city police by the state.
Interesting….