Mayor Spencer's Policing Priorities

Introduction

Our City Deserves Real Oversight, Transparency, and Focus from the Board Charged with Overseeing its Police Department. 

St. Louis can have one of the best police departments in the country. Our officers have helped bring crime down, and the department has a strong foundation to build upon. However, a police department is only as strong as its oversight and the priorities that body sets. 

My goal as Mayor is to make St. Louis one of the safest major cities in America, with a fully staffed, modern, data-driven, and trusted police department that prevents crime and works with City government and the community to solve problems before they become police calls. 

Let me be clear about where I stand. St. Louis should control its own police department, as Missouri voters overwhelmingly agreed in 2012 and as nearly every other major city in America already does. The City’s legal challenge to state control continues, and we will see it through. 

But St. Louisans can’t afford to put public safety on hold while the courts decide. As long as this Board exists, I will use my seat on it to push for the improvements our residents and officers deserve. 

I believe the Board of Police Commissioners has a real responsibility to oversee the department, and residents deserve to know who is accountable. In recent weeks, the Board's attention has gone to an executive pay raise and a reality TV deal instead of the department's core needs. The four priorities below are where the Board should focus instead. 

Priorities at a Glance

1. Conduct a Compensation Study to Raise Entry-Level Officer Salaries
2. Enforce Active Operational Oversight and Establish Seamless City Collaboration
3. Accelerate Violence Prevention and Crime Prevention
4. Commit to Full Public Transparency, Fairness, Professionalism, and Fiscal Integrity 

Priority 1: Conduct a Compensation Study to Raise Entry-Level Officer Salaries

Every dollar spent on top executive pay increases is a dollar not spent on what we actually need: competitive starting pay that makes SLMPD the employer of choice in the region and gets us back to full strength. 

In two recent closed-door meetings billed as “emergencies,” the Board approved a new contract for Chief Tracy worth more than $1 million above his existing one, which still had more than two years remaining. That money would go a long way towards the compensation study and starting pay increases our officers need. 

St. Louis continues to face severe sworn officer shortages, operating with roughly 850 officers compared to 1,250 in 2020 and the authorized strength of 1,140 in 2026. Resources must be directed toward base pay parity to make SLMPD the premier regional police employer and build a fully staffed department. 

What the Board Should Do

• Immediately issue an RFP for a comprehensive, independent compensation study focused on substantially raising entry-level officer salaries to match regional and national labor markets. It should recommend the best mix of salary and benefits to achieve that goal, while not negatively impacting any officer in the current system. 

Priority 2: Enforce Active Operational Oversight and Establish Seamless City Collaboration

At the September 30, 2026, public meeting, Board President Saracino said that the Board is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the department. That raises a basic question: if the Chief takes direction from neither the Mayor nor the Board, to whom is he accountable? The Board must exercise true governance rather than abdicating operational oversight. 

The clear breakdown in accountability poses severe risks to the safety and wellbeing of St. Louisans, visitors, and our city’s reputation as our region prepares for major international events, including the upcoming 2028 Olympic games. 

Keeping major events safe requires every public safety agency working from the same plan. For months, the Chief has refused to share operational planning documents with the City Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) and Fire Department prior to significant city-wide events. This runs counter to national incident management standards, established by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5 following the September 11th attacks, requiring a Unified Command structure and shared Incident Action Plans across public safety agencies. Seamless collaboration with the City government is non-negotiable. 

What the Board Should Do

• Adopt a resolution affirming the Board’s responsibility for operational oversight of the department.
• Adopt a written policy, at the next Board meeting, requiring SLMPD to share Incident Action Plans with CEMA and the Fire Department before every major city-wide event. 

Priority 3: Accelerate Violence Prevention and Crime Prevention

The City needs less talk about violence prevention efforts and more actual partnership. 

Public safety strategy must move upstream from merely responding to violence to preventing it. The city has been pursuing focused deterrence meetings called "shooting reviews," which guide intervention efforts and identify those who could become caught up in a cycle of violence. However, police leadership told the city to wait, then took from July 28 until October 20 to create an agreement letting the city's Office of Violence Prevention participate. We now have an agreement, but it took nearly three months for something that wasn't needed. 

Data-driven policing should focus on high-risk individuals, traffic safety, problem properties, and infrastructure vandalism. Department resources, intelligence capabilities, and technology must integrate directly with the City's Department of Public Safety, Office of Violence Prevention, Building Division, and community partners. The Board has a vital role to play by accelerating these prevention efforts. 

What the Board Should Do

• Give the Office of Violence Prevention standing access to shooting reviews, with no new agreements required.
• Set joint quarterly targets with the Director of Public Safety on traffic safety, problem properties, and infrastructure vandalism. 

Priority 4: Commit to Full Public Transparency, Fairness, Professionalism, and Fiscal Integrity

Transparency and Fiscal Integrity

Public trust isn’t a soft goal. Police work depends on it. 

Secretive emergency meetings, unbudgeted seven-figure contract expansions, and unvetted media deals undermine community confidence and fiscal sustainability. Last week, a reality TV agreement came before the Board that would have given a production company permanent ownership of footage of our residents, without their consent and without any protections for victims, juveniles, or people in crisis. Department leadership had already been meeting privately with the producers, without notice to the public or many Board members. The Board tabled it after I objected, and the department only dropped it after public outcry. An agreement like this should never have reached the Board’s agenda in the first place. 

The Board has now spent more than $1.2 million on outside counsel to fight the city that pays its bills. It should publish those billing records, and its next attorney must not treat the City of St. Louis as an adversary. The Board and its counsel must strictly follow Sunshine Law open meeting requirements. 

Fairness for Officers and Civilian Staff

The Board must also guard fairness and diversity in the force. The Board should weigh the interests of the entire force, not only the Chief's requests. For example, the Board recently approved Chief Tracy’s request to effect a policy change allowing him to hand-select command staff, a change that bypasses the competitive process officers rely on to advance. 

Promoting officers is critical both to recognizing talent and service and to building leadership within the department. The last promotional tests were conducted between 3 and 5 years ago. The Board should require a new exam so deserving officers have the chance to rise through the ranks, and so that our department can best prepare its next generation of leaders. 

Civilians play a critical role in the department, handling important roles like the crime lab, dispatch, legal services, and human resources. Their contract lapsed in June 2025, and they have now gone more than 16 months without one. That should be resolved now. 

The Board found $110,000 for a raise for the highest-paid person in the department. It has not found $80,000 for the crime lab workers who have waited for a compression adjustment. 

A Force that Reflects St. Louis

Finally, our police department should look like the city it pledges to serve and protect. The Board should ensure fairness for all demographics by growing a diverse police force, especially among command staff. The Board should publish current and, thereafter, annual data on the demographics of the force and of command staff, and set goals for both. 

What the Board Should Do

• Publish outside-counsel billing records within 30 days.
• Schedule a promotional exam within six months, and on predictable schedules thereafter.
• Return to the table with civilian staff to produce a contract.
• Publish current demographic data on the force and command staff, and publish annually thereafter.
• Create a clearer process to receive and resolve civilian complaints, and provide for civilian oversight. 

Closing

The women and men of SLMPD do hard and dangerous work. As our case continues to work its way through the courts, I remain committed to working with commissioners on the safety of our city, and these four priorities are where we should start. I will bring them to the Board at its coming meetings, and I ask the commissioners to make them a priority.