Local leaders focus on St. Louis City Police staffing amid new study

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) - The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department will again go under the microscope. This time, the Board of Aldermen members will look at a recent report that shows how the department does not staff its districts equally.

The study suggests ways that can be accomplished. At 11 a.m., the Public Safety Committee for the Board of Alderman will meet with the Center for Policing Equity to review the report, which was released last week. Honing in on staffing, the staffing disparity listed is based on the workload in each district.

To combat that, the report recommends that the city should invest in additional programming for youth, and strengthen the use and referrals of integrated services like family violence programs to help establish alternatives to policing.

It also lists having access to a technology system referred to as risk terrain modeling, that showcases how other cities are handling similar problems successfully. This specific report referenced Newark, New Jersey which has used outreach workers to help with ensuring safety in high-risk neighborhoods. In addition, the study outlines having non-profits adopt high-risk places, such as vacant buildings, and turned them into spaces for community programming.

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