Folks may or may not feel safer in the city these days, but the data kept by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department show a clear pattern citywide: Crime is down.
From 2021 to 2024, murders fell from 202 to 150. Aggravated assaults went down by 24 percent, property crimes by 11 percent, and “society” crimes (e.g. drug violations) by 15 percent.
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While homicides have fallen in many U.S. cities, Mayor Tishaura Jones often credits her violence prevention programs and the leadership of Police Commissioner Robert Tracy, who arrived in early 2023. Under Jones’ tenure, the clearance rate for the SLMPD has risen and officers have gotten two raises. At the same time, hundreds of them have left—a trend she says is happening nationwide.
“Crime is still down despite being down officers,” she said, “so this is also a time to look at what is the right number of authorized strength, and our chief has been doing that to make sure that we have enough to respond to the violent crime that we do have.”
Jones made her remarks to Nine PBS and SLM as part of interviews conducted for the Citizens’ Agenda. In focus groups and online feedback, residents stressed the need for better public safety and an accountable police force.
Alderwoman Cara Spencer said that a fully staffed police department is “imperative.” She calls for paying officers at a level that’s regionally competitive. (According to the police officers’ union, the city ranks in the bottom third on pay among the area’s several dozen municipal departments.) Spencer proposes improving the hiring process and focusing more on day-to-day issues for officers such as ordering shirts and fixing vehicles in their fleet.
Michael Butler, a former state representative and city’s current recorder of deeds, echoes these positions. “The number one thing that I hear from police officers,” Butler said, “is that their equipment is not up-to-date.” He too calls for raising officer pay in a way that’s competitive in the area.
Andrew Jones, the retired utility executive, said that unlike the other three candidates, he himself (a Republican) is “an avid supporter” of the police. He said that he does not support social workers handling some police calls or street outreach programs—a “trusted messenger” approach in which people who no longer commit crime try to deter those are currently engaged in it. “We can lead with outstanding citizens,” Jones said.
On the topic of pedestrian safety, three of the candidates appear to have similar positions. In 2024, the SLMPD reported having issued 27,000 traffic tickets and doubled the number of joint operations it did with the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Mayor Jones said that that activity will continue, to be complemented by the reintroduction of red-light cameras within the next year or two. Both enforcement tactics, she said, will continue without targeting “already vulnerable populations.”
Butler agreed that was possible, saying, “I think people of color are asking for us to enforce our traffic laws.” He added that police must recognize the “difference between criminals and crime” by focusing less, say, on someone who rolled a stop sign than someone who ran a red light.
As for Spencer, she proposes taking “ a stronger approach” on pedestrian safety by enforcing laws already on the books, such as those around license plates; as alderwoman, she proposed impounding a vehicle if someone “drives it like a weapon.” Andrew Jones said that people driving cars with expired tags tend to drive “recklessly” and should be pulled over. “We have to let people understand that we have laws,” he said.
Candidates also agreed that it was important to hold bad officers accountable. But questioned about the Bar:PM incident, in which two rookie officers crashed a police SUV into the LGBTQ bar, then another arrested the owner, both Spencer and Butler said the city needed to do better.
“I think one of the best ways that we can support our police department is to call out bad policing when it happens,” Spencer said. “And we need to do a better job of that, and I absolutely don’t think that we did that in this case. It was jaw-dropping to me after the officers drove into the bar to have the administration say, ‘Well, it’s just really difficult to drive an SUV.’”
Said Butler, “I think that, no, we’re not doing a good enough to hold folks accountable because we’re at such bare bones that sometimes governments make decisions they want to keep as many people as possible. I won’t do that. I’ll focus on quality over quantity and make sure we have quality officers. And if you don’t meet the standard, then we’ve got to move you on because that’s going to continue to deteriorate the relationship between the community and the police department.”
The city has continued to press charges against the bar’s owner. While not directly addressing that situation, Jones said she believes the department has dealt with officers appropriately, citing the dismissal of two officers who chose to “cruise around” Forest Park near the end of a shift in 2023 rather than give aid to a man who’d shot himself. “We handled that quietly,” she said, “held those officers accountable and they are no longer with the department.”
She added, “Chief Tracy, like the kids say, he doesn’t play when it comes to holding officers accountable.”
