ST. LOUIS 鈥 Reducing the city鈥檚 homicide rate 鈥渕ust be the metro鈥檚 top priority,鈥 the region鈥檚 two leading business organizations say in a new policy paper released Friday, signaling a growing consensus that reducing crime needs to be the first item on area leaders鈥 to-do list.
The new comes as regional leaders plan to convene Wednesday for a regional crime summit called for by 狐狸视频 Mayor Tishaura O. Jones and organized by the East-West Gateway Council of Governments.
While it鈥檚 largely a recitation of the grim statistics with which many 狐狸视频ans are familiar, the paper hones in on homicides to make the case that murders, in particular, make 狐狸视频 an outlier compared to other cities and drive a narrative about the wider region that stymies growth.
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鈥淲e are quite an outlier when it comes to our homicide rate,鈥 said leading criminologist Richard Rosenfeld, a University of Missouri-狐狸视频 professor who was tapped by business groups Greater 狐狸视频 Inc. and the Regional Business Council to help compile the policy paper. 鈥淲ith respect to violent crime generally and property crime, the 狐狸视频 region ranks somewhere in the middle of metropolitan areas.鈥
The policy brief is an attempt to focus the discussion in advance of next week鈥檚 regional crime summit, and it follows weeks of turmoil over the near-collapse of the 狐狸视频 circuit attorney鈥檚 office under outgoing prosecutor Kimberly M. Gardner. Meanwhile, high-profile violence downtown and at a popular Cinco de Mayo street festival have continued to feed regional anxiety over crime.
鈥淰iolent crime impacts everyone in the 15-county bi-state 狐狸视频 metro and, right now, we are in the midst of a homicide crisis,鈥 reads a joint statement from Greater 狐狸视频 CEO Jason Hall and Regional Business Council President Kathy Osborn. 鈥淭his is taking a tremendous human toll and is a barrier to economic growth and prosperity for people in every community. This is our crisis as a region, and it requires all of us to roll up our sleeves and get to work to fix it.鈥
It鈥檚 nothing new for business leaders to weigh in or throw money at the region鈥檚 public safety problems. They鈥檝e funded major studies of law enforcement agencies and even part of new 狐狸视频 police Chief Robert Tracy鈥檚 salary.
But the brief is the latest example of Greater 狐狸视频, the region鈥檚 leading business and economic development advocacy group, taking on a more vocal role in confronting public safety issues. When Greater 狐狸视频 formed in late 2020 and released its 2030 Jobs Plan meant to guide its priorities for the decade, critics such as St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann questioned why public safety wasn鈥檛 more prominent. At the time, Hall said public safety was beyond the scope of the jobs plan but has since said public safety is 鈥渕oving up the priority list for our members.鈥
Now, Greater 狐狸视频, in the new white paper, says its policy board has 鈥渄etermined that crime and public safety are a leading barrier to the implementation and success of the STL 2030 Jobs Plan.鈥
Rosenfeld agreed. Though the region鈥檚 homicides are disproportionately concentrated in a few neighborhoods in the city of 狐狸视频, he said their effects ripple throughout the regional economy.
鈥淥ur homicide problem makes it difficult to recruit businesses to the region, to retain businesses in the region,鈥 he said. 鈥淭he economic vitality, the health of the region, really does depend on the region鈥檚 ability to come together, act as a single entity and mount evidence-based programs that have proven successful elsewhere in reducing homicide.鈥
Chief among those approaches is what鈥檚 referred to in criminal justice circles as 鈥渇ocused deterrence,鈥 in which police concentrate resources on the relatively small group of individuals that tend to drive homicides in a region and confront them during in-person home meetings with a choice: social services and help getting out of 鈥渢he life,鈥 or the heavy hand of a criminal justice system that already knows who and where they are.
Tracy, the new police chief Jones hired, has touted his use of focused deterrence in driving down the homicide rate in Wilmington, Delaware, and Rosenfeld said 狐狸视频 police have already been using it to a degree. Rosenfeld noted that when homicides here peaked during the pandemic in 2020, home visits under the approach were curtailed. Another focused deterrence pilot here with people convicted of gun crimes but on probation or parole demonstrated a reduction in arrests, Rosenfeld said.
鈥淲e have shown in the city of 狐狸视频 that that kind of approach can be effective,鈥 he said. 鈥淭he effort at the crime summit will be to get a regional commitment to expand that kind of effort.鈥
A leading proponent of the approach, , a criminologist and author of the 2019 book 鈥淏leeding Out,鈥 will be the keynote speaker at Wednesday鈥檚 summit and plans to assist 狐狸视频 leaders in using focused deterrence to reduce its murder rate, Rosenfeld said.
The approach will take years to pay off and needs a sustained commitment from area leaders, Rosenfeld said. The business groups鈥 pilot paper says research suggests a 10% reduction in homicides per year 鈥渋s both reasonable and attainable.鈥 They recommend the formation of a regional Office of Violence Prevention that tracks progress and reports to the public.
But Rosenfeld said putting the needed resources into homicide reduction while responding to growing calls from the public for more traffic enforcement and quality-of-life policing will require more personnel.
鈥淭hese so-called proactive approaches that have been successful both here and elsewhere in reducing crime, both property and violent crime, with a limited supply of resources, namely police officers, that becomes a real issue when officers are simply responding to the radio,鈥澛爃e said. 鈥淲hatever can be done should be done to recruit more officers to the city department.鈥