Additional police officers, police body cameras and dash-cams come at a cost – and to pay for it in St. Louis County, the proposal before voters on April 4 is Proposition P, a half-cent sales tax increase for law enforcement and public safety.
The question reads, “Shall St. Louis County impose a one-half of one percent sales tax for the purpose of providing funds to improve police and public safety in St. Louis County and each of the municipalities within St. Louis County?”
While the ballot wording is sparse, County Executive Steve Stenger said Proposition P would bring in $80 million in additional revenue annually, of which the County plans to keep more than half of it – about $48 million – and divide the remaining $32 million among its 88 municipalities, through a population-based state statute formula.
“For St. Louis County, we are going to utilize the money to increase our number of officers,” Stenger said. “We are going to particularly focus on two officers to a vehicle so we can have real community policing.”
“From my viewpoint, the great thing is, it should reduce our ‘use of forces’ because there are two officers that are there,” St. Louis Police County Chief Jon Belmar said. “I think it allows our officers to have that ability to spend some time on the community engagement piece – slowing down, talking to folks, different things like that.”
If voters pass the measure, Proposition P would pay for at least 110 additional officers, higher police salaries, upgrading or building new precincts, body and dash-cam technology and the infrastructure to support it. Belmar calls it a necessary investment in the future of law enforcement to keep St. Louis County and the region “as safe as it is” to live and work.
“I’m looking to buy 600 camera systems with this money, so all those street officers have the camera systems available to them and use them,” Belmar said. “That in itself is very expensive, when you look at build-out and bandwidth; the camera systems, the storage; hiring additional people to manage that data.
“Really, we should have investigated and invested in it long ago, but there isn’t the budget available for that.”
In his department, the chief said there are about 890 County police officers, with 400 patrolling the county currently and another 300 professional staff. While 110 new officers would increase capacity, he said it would not put a partner in every county patrol car.
“That number winds up being well beyond a half-cent,” he said.
If smaller towns do not have police departments, Belmar said the municipalities would have to use the money on its contracted police agency.
While there is expressed respect and support of police, public safety and law enforcement, there are many questions on whether Proposition P is the appropriate way to do provide that support. Chesterfield, Missouri Mayor Bob Nation maintains that the sales tax proposal does not add up for several reasons. He said Proposition P is an unreasonable request that municipalities are not requesting or even need, in some cases.
“Anyway you look at it, this is completely unjustified; if you analyze it mathematically, which is not that difficult to do,” Nation said. “One of the largest reasons I am opposed to it is the overall economic health of St. Louis County.”
Nation said St. Louis County’s population has been stagnant for decades, in part due to natural urban sprawl, and the perception that the cost of living and housing is less in St. Charles County and the other surrounding counties.
He also said unincorporated St. Louis County will reap benefits coming from municipalities. Unincorporated St. Louis County population is approximately 321,000 – that’s about one-third of the overall population of St. Louis County in total, which is about 998,000, Nation said. While the unincorporated population is approximately one-third of the County’s total, Nation said only a small fraction of the total would be generated from unincorporated St. Louis County – somewhere between $14 and $16 million, whereas they would receive $46 million.
“So they are getting in excess of $30 million more, courtesy the surrounding municipalities to supplement their 800-plus-man police force,” Nation said.
With a $106-million County police budget, Nation said there are already sufficient revenues generated to fund their law enforcement effort.
“If they got the $46-million on top of their $106-million, this would be in excess of 40 percent increase all at once,” Nation said. “Chief Belmar said he wanted to hire 120 additional police officers… you could hire 120 additional police officers, pay them each $100,000 a year and that would only use $12 million of the $46-million they are getting.”
Nation also said state statute does not mention law enforcement, or police or public safety or anything like that. “All this statute does is dictates a method of dividing up the additional revenue,” he said.
The St. Louis County Council is on break this week. District 1 Councilwoman Hazel Erby spoke with leaders from the 39 municipalities she represents.
“I decided to just stand down on it, because … it’s amazing how they are split on it,” Erby said. “I think most of them, from what they’ve told me, would like to go along with them – all of us support the police, that’s a fact – but they are torn because they’re not sure. It’s not specified where they money will go.”
District 4 Councilwoman Rochelle Walton-Gray said she is has received mixed opinions on Proposition P and she has not yet made a decision.
Pat Kelly, the executive director of the Municipal League of Metropolitan St. Louis, said the League is not taking an official position on Proposition P either, because a number of cities had their own propositions on the ballot.
“They weren’t necessarily opposed to it, but they didn’t want to take the position because of other tax initiatives that they either have on the ballot or just passed,” Kelly said. “We just thought it would be better if each individual city decide whether they were for or against it.”
