St. Louis had its lowest number of homicides last year since 2013, and overall crime in the city is down 15% since 2023. City officials said assistance from service providers, local crime prevention initiatives and surveillance technology are helping reduce crime rates.
Last year there were 150 homicides, down from 160 in 2023. Although the city has been making progress in lowering crime numbers, officials say there is still much work to be done.
“One-hundred and fifty homicides in one year is still far too many, and we're committed to using every tool available to us to bring that number down even further,” Mayor Tishaura Jones said on Tuesday at a press conference. “Our all hands-on-deck approach, including those in coordination with the St Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the circuit attorney's office and our community partners, remains effective at continuing this downward trend.”
Last year, the city developed Save Lives Now, a regional violence prevention group, to help find solutions to fight crime and reduce violent street crime. Jones said the city’s goal is to reduce homicides and shootings by 20% by 2028.
Some solutions the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department found that are helping reduce some crime rates are forensic and surveillance technology. With the use of ShotSpotter and the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, the department has been able to track where guns are fired and help connect the shooter to the firearm.
Out of the 10,000 items submitted to the crime laboratory, about 5,000 had some leads from the technology used on the streets, which helped detectives in their efforts to solve those cases, said Robert Tracy, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department chief.
“Without the technology, we are not going to be able to solve as many cases,” he said. “We will make sure we will protect people's civil liberties and make sure that we do it fair and we make sure that we protect people's constitutional rights, but we do need this technology to make sure that we can solve these crimes and bring people to justice.”
Homicide, sexual and aggravated assault, robbery, felony theft and auto theft rates are also trending downward. However, burglaries increased by about 4% last year. Tracy said the department is actively working to address gun-related crimes because 90% of homicides in St. Louis are by gunshot. To lower that rate, Tracy is encouraging the community to work with the police department.
“We need our community support. We saw that partnership work in a significant way last year, and we're always looking for ways to strengthen our relationships, and I believe that starts with increasing transparency.
“We have great detectives. We get good surveillance technology, but would not be able to cite these crimes if the people don't trust us and trust the circuit attorney's office to come forward to make sure we can bring those that are causing harm to our community to justice,” Tracy said.
To help keep residents informed about crime statistics in the area, the police department directly uploads data to its revamped website that includes weekly reports from neighborhoods and citywide districts. The police department also launched a crime-mapping tool that gives insight into recent crime activity.
City officials say the work does not stop with the police department, but collaborating with community partners to tackle education, help with mental health issues and addiction and find ways to help people divert from crime can change lives.
“We can't fix the pain that these victims feel, and we can't go back in time to stop a crime from happening, but what we can do is reduce the number of crime victims each week, each month and each year, and we're continuing to do that,” Jones said.
