Last week, 45 civic leaders in St. Louis told Mayor Cara Spencer what they think she should do over the next four years. One short-term recommendation: that the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, which is well below authorized strength, hire 200 new officers.
Easier said than done. Officer recruitment is tough all over the country. And anyway, hiring decisions aren’t really Spencer’s to make. The city negotiates with the St. Louis Police Officers Association on the pay scale, which either attracts applicants or doesn’t, and now, thanks to recent state legislation, a reconstituted St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners will oversee departmental operations.
But there’s research to suggest that hiring more cops is a good idea—not because it would lead to more arrests, but fewer…