Mayor Tishaura O. Jones Passes FY2022 Budget with Amendments, Redirects Excess Police Staffing Budget to Diversion and Support Programs

With the support of Comptroller Darlene Green, St. Louis City Mayor Tishaura O. Jones passed several amendments to the Fiscal Year 22 budget. The amendments continue to reflect Mayor Jones’ priorities of addressing and investing in proactive measures to reduce crime.

Despite an overall decline in the number of police officers working for the City of St. Louis over the past two decades, the budget allocated for police officers has not changed to reflect those declines. Mayor Jones saw this discrepancy as an opportunity to ensure that the right resources are distributed to the right call.

“Budgets are moral documents, and previous budgets do not reflect either the shared values or the emerging needs of the most vulnerable St. Louisans. For many years the budget has not supported the needs of the people and that’s why we’re seeing record numbers of homicides and other acts of violence. What we’ve been doing doesn’t work. This revised budget will start St. Louis on a new path to tackling some of the root causes of crime.” -Mayor Tishaura O. Jones

No current city police officers will lose their jobs under this amendment, which eliminates 98 vacant positions and still leaves room for over 50 remaining vacancies. The $4 million reallocation will be distributed as follows:

• $1.5 million will be allocated to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, a subject which received the most scrutiny during public comment last Friday.
• $1 million towards Victim Support services, including supporting funeral expenses, medical needs, child care, mental health support, case and crisis management, as well as trauma informed support.
• $1 million towards increasing the capacity of the Department of Health & Human services to support the unhoused.
• $.5 million towards affirmative litigation, directing the city counselor’s office to provide legal support to the Civil Rights Enforcement Agency (CREA).