St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay has announced a new commission to help him implement his anti-crime strategy.
The mayor wants the Commission on Violent Crime to be operational by the end of the year, though many of the details, including who the members of the commission will be, are unclear. He unveiled the plans to revive the commission on his website on Thursday:
"The new Commission on Violent Crime will oversee the implementation of the PIER plan, to gather public input for the plan, and to recommend new public safety initiatives for my consideration. The Commission will seek input from aldermen, the Office of the Circuit Attorney, state court judges, federal law enforcement officials, and the state Attorney General's office."
(PIER stands for prevention, intervention, enforcement and re-entry, areas the mayor will target with new programs.)
Slay said the commission, which last operated 50 years ago isn't necessary to talk to stakeholders about crime-fighting strategies or gather public comments.
"The idea is, you hear too many times 'what are you doing?' 'why are you doing it?,' so having a commission will just help a lot with formalizing what we already do, which is get input and also communicate even in a better way to the community," he said.
Critics of the mayor immediately derided the announcement on Twitter.
He still doesn't get it. https://t.co/1OAJDmCZvL
— Antonio French (@AntonioFrench) October 8, 2015
We already have a variety of voices elected from across the city to recommend public safety initiatives: Aldermen. https://t.co/1OAJDmCZvL
— Antonio French (@AntonioFrench) October 8, 2015
@MayorSlay Another commission to recommend the same initiatives that the public safety committee has been recommending.
— Chris Carter (@ChrisCarter3) October 8, 2015
Follow Rachel Lippmann on Twitter: @rlippmann
