ST. LOUIS—Mayor Tishaura Jones and Police Chief Robert Tracy have already made the well-worn journey to Jefferson City to testify against past state legislative attempts to bring back state control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. 

It appears they’ll have company when a new effort reaches the hearing phase in the General Assembly this year. In what may have been his first public comments in his official capacity as Circuit Attorney, Gabe Gore said Tuesday he supports local control.

What You Need To Know

  • St. Louis officials say the number of homicides in 2024 (150) was the lowest since 2013

  • Of the categories of major crime, the only category to go up in 2024 was the number of burglaries

  • Police Chief Robert Tracy says morale has improved as officers see arrests turning into charges brought by the Circuit Attorney's office

  • Gabe Gore said Tuesday that he backs keeping SLMPD under local control despite a renewed effort to put it back under a state-appointed board which this year includes a public push by Gov. Mike Kehoe

 

Gore, who was appointed by Gov. Mike Parson in May of 2023 to succeed the embattled Kim Gardner, has drawn near-universal praise, including from Republicans from Parson on down, including the major gubernatorial candidates who ran in 2024. Mike Kehoe took office on Monday and has said state control of the department is an important cog in a larger public safety agenda.

“I think we got things heading in the right direction. I think what we’re doing is working and I’d like to continue that work,” Gore said at a Tuesday news conference where Jones and Tracy talked about declining crime rates citywide in 2024. The city’s homicide count of 150 was the lowest since 2013, with overall crime statistics down 15% year over year. Burglaries were the only major crime category to see a year over year increase, according to police data.

Local control, where the police chief reports to the mayor and not a state-appointed board as it previously had, has “allowed us to see the improvement that we’ve made, so I want to stay on that track. I’m willing to work with the Mayor, the Chief to support that position however I can,” Gore said.

Both of the unions representing SLMPD officers have endorsed state control in the past.

As he’s done before, Tracy spoke again Tuesday about how staffing at the department shows signs of improvement as it has hovered around roughly 300 vacancies short of its budgeted strength. Officers who left the department are returning to the force due to pay increases and improved morale, as Gore’s office has made it a priority to speed up charging decisions on cases and prosecute crime.

“They’re starting to come back because they saw the good things that are happening with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and also with our circuit attorney holding people accountable when they make those arrests,” Tracy said. “From crime trends to recruiting and transparency, it’s all a step in the right direction. There’s plenty of work to do and we’re all committed to ensuring the safety of St. Louisans.”

“While we’re proud of these numbers,” Jones said of the 2024 statistics, “I know that they don’t mean much to a victim of crime or their family members. We can’t fix the pain that these victims feel and we can’t go back in time to stop a crime from happening. But what we can do, the best thing we can do is reduce the number of crime victims each week, each month and each year.”

Tracy said the department would need a legal review before he could commit to another Kehoe policy plan, a regional task force that would combine the efforts of participating departments to locate people with pending felony warrants. Kehoe signed an executive order authorizing the plan Monday.

The St. Louis County Police and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office both told Spectrum News on Tuesday that they would participate.