ST. LOUIS – There are thousands of emergency calls in St. Louis, but the city is down hundreds of officers. Some say the lack of manpower is risking the lives of not only cops, but also the public.
Earlier this month, off-duty tow truck driver Jeremy Bailey used his personal vehicle to help make other drivers aware of a vehicle that had crashed.
“There was a car that hit the wall, spun out and blocking both lanes,” Bailey said.
He had just got off work when the crash happened in on a St. Louis area interstate. Bailey told the woman to get on the other side of the guard rail and had a flashlight to try and get other drivers to slow down.
“I started flashing [the light at] cars, trying to get them to slow down cause cars kept flying around it,” Bailey said. “They would lock their brakes up.”
Bailey called 911, but said it took at least 45 minutes for a St. Louis police officer to arrive. The off-duty tow truck driver said help eventually arrived.
“It was bad. This went on close to an hour,” Bailey said. “I’ve been doing this for ten years now and that’s the scariest thing I’ve done.”
The St. Louis Police Officers’ Association called the staffing situation in the St. Louis Metropolitian Police Department (SLMPD) a “crisis.”
Jane Dueker represents the Association and said officers are leaving the city at a rapid pace.
“There are not enough officers to cover all the police districts,” Dueker said.
St. Louis divides the city into six police districts, but the department will not say how many officers are in each, despite requesting daily work assignment sheets under the state’s open-record law.
Dueker said the police union believes the daily worksheets are a public record and should be released.
“Taxpayers are entitled to know how their taxpayer funded resources are being spent, and most importantly they’re allowed to know the allocation of resources for public safety,” Dueker said.
SLMPD eventually released numbers that reveal how many beat cars were operating in the city on two random days that the Fox Files selected.
June 1, 2023
1st Shift 47
2nd Shift 44
3rd Shift 46
June 10, 2023
1st Shift 41
2nd Shift 43
3rd Shift 48
Police operate with one to two officers per car. The Police Officers’ Association does not believe these numbers fully show how bad the understaffing crisis is.
“I’ve talked to police officers who have been the only officer in a district for an entire shift,” Dueker said.
Police sources said, on some recent Friday nights, there’s only been four officers assigned to some of the districts. The maximum is 20.
City records reveal nearly 1,000 calls on June 1, ranging from shootings, fights, accidents and unfounded calls.
Officers assigned to answer emergency calls, like the crashed car on the interstate, are part of the patrol division which makes up just a portion of the overall department.
St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s Organizational Chart.
There are hundreds of supervisors spread throughout, from sergeants to lieutenant colonels. Those same supervisors refuse to say how many officers make up the patrol division.
“We are authorized 190 Sergeants, 55 Lieutenants, 10 Captains, 6 Majors, and 4 Lieutenant Colonels,” a spokesman confirmed.
According to the staffing numbers provided by the department, there are vacancies in each of the ranks. However, SLMPD will not say how many supervisors are dedicated to patrol functions.
“They don’t want the public to know how few officers are actually on the streets,” Dueker said.
The union rep believes the department is top-heavy with supervisors.
“We’ve discussed that with the Board of Aldermen for five years. It’s not just a crisis in staffing, it’s an allocation of resources,” Dueker said.
Under the city’s new bargaining agreement, the starting salary for a police officer is roughly $53,000. It still does not compete with the pay increases per year offered at St. Louis County Police.
The Fox Files requested an interview with Police Chief Robert Tracy to discuss vacancies and recruitment, but the department declined the request.