St. Louis is Reallocating Some Police Funds

Misbar discovered that on April 29, 2021, the St. Louis Board of Estimates and Apportionment approved a spending plan for the City of St. Louis 2022 fiscal year beginning July 1, 2021 which includes a change to police funding. St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones proposed shifting $4M allocated for vacant police positions to affordable housing, homelessness, victims of crime, and civil rights enforcement according to St. Louis Public Radio. Previously, the budgeted money has mostly been used for officer overtime. The proposed budget would eliminate 98 vacant police positions, but there would still be 50 remaining vacancies and no one would lose their jobs. The city’s police chief supported the proposal. 

Some believe using the word “defund” when talking about shifting money from law enforcement to social service programs is helpful to those opposing the budget, creating an emotional flashpoint. 

On July 1, 2021, the St. Louis budget will take effect for the second year in a row without any action by the Board of Aldermen. The aldermanic Ways and Means Committee, which oversees the budget, recommended that the full board not pass it, not only because of the shift in police funds but also because a Medium Security Institution, known as the Workhouse, was no longer in the budget.

Like many cities in the U.S., St. Louis has seen a large jump in homicides. The city’s public safety director, Daniel Isom said, “With the $4 million, we're increasing the number of social workers we have who can go out and work with both victims and suspects trying to divert people from this type of violent behavior.”

The City of St. Louis redirected funds from the police to other social services for fiscal year 2022. However, no officers are losing their jobs, and 50 more police jobs are already funded to increase the existing numbers of police officers.