ST. LOUIS—With three months left in 2024, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones and Police Chief Robert Tracy are touting positive year-over-year crime statistics in the city, including more than a 20 % drop in homicides compared to 2020, while also noting areas of improvement.
“While we have a lot to be proud of, I want to be clear, acknowledging our progress is not the same as ignoring our issues. Some of the numbers you will hear today will be encouraging and some of them will not,” Jones said during a press briefing Tuesday billed as a “quarterly report” at SLMPD headquarters with Tracy and his command staff.
“Overall crime is down 18 % compared to this time last year. We're seeing a decrease in crime. We're seeing a slight increase in the number of shootings and that's a trend that we're watching closely,” Tracy said.
In terms of homicides, the number as of Tuesday sat at 116, compared to:
- 126 in 2023
- 154 in 2022
- 147 in 2021
- 205 in 2020
Tracy said the department is taking advantage of the law passed last summer that allows police to ask anyone openly carrying a firearm to produce a concealed weapons permit. The most immediate effect was expected to be on the incidences of juveniles openly carrying guns, since it’s against the law in most cases for someone under the age of 19 to carry a concealed weapon.
While Tracy couldn’t pinpoint the number of times the ordinance has resulted in a weapon being confiscated, he did point to the week of the July 4 holiday when there were 39 gun arrests citywide, including 21 downtown, with many of those cases involving juveniles.
The one statistic Tracy wishes would increase more, in a significant way, hasn’t largely, since he began on the job in Jan. 2023—the number of officers in his department. There have been strides in hiring officers. There are higher salaries, state lawmakers repealed a residency requirement, and the department is more aggressive when it comes to engaging with applicants and helping them through the academy process. Despite all that, amid a larger regional and national shortage for law enforcement hiring, SLMPD remains about 300 officers short of its budgeted force.
Tracy said 23 officers who left the department for another agency, have returned.
“You become part of this family, this is a good place to work. And the best recruiters of any organization including policing, is the people that work in the department themselves,” he said.
The briefing comes ahead of elections in November and the spring, which could help shape the future of the department. Republicans who hold the majority in the Missouri General Assembly have long pushed to bring SLMPD back under control of a state-appointed board and have also questioned the department's crime statistics. Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, the Republican nominee for governor has said he supports state control.
Jones, running for re-election to a second term as mayor in 2025, has at least two primary opponents in alderwoman Cara Spencer, who sponsored the legislation on concealed carry permits, and Recorder of Deeds Michael Butler.