最新杏吧原创

ST. LOUIS 鈥� There鈥檚 arguably no greater concern for the four people aiming to become mayor of 最新杏吧原创 than the violent crime that brought the deaths of more than 260 people last year.

The three Democratic candidates want to stem the homicide rate 鈥� one of the worst in North America 鈥� by finding policing alternatives and public health solutions to violent crime. They also see police partnerships with mental health providers and others as a critical component. The lone Republican in the race takes a counter view, believing that many of these efforts are a waste of money and that city leaders have neutered officers and restricted their efforts in nabbing criminals.

The task they face on the issue of crime alone is daunting.

鈥淭he mayor has got to care,鈥� said Darren Seals, a longtime community activist who works to direct boys away from criminal behavior. 鈥淲hoever becomes mayor has got to be mayor for the whole city, not just the south side.鈥�

Seals works with the highly touted Cure Violence program and other anti-crime efforts in the city and said the violence in north 最新杏吧原创 and elsewhere is 鈥渢aking over.鈥�

The four candidates will square off March 2 in a first-round primary election after which the field will be narrowed to two. Those two will then move to the April 6 general election that will determine who becomes the city鈥檚 47th mayor.

Republican candidate Andrew Jones, who鈥檚 a vice president at Southwestern Electric Cooperative, said it鈥檚 time to stop throwing money at Cure Violence 鈥� 鈥渁nother tax dollar-consuming program that fails miserably.鈥� The focus, he argues, should be on giving police officers the proper authority to do their jobs.

鈥淚 am paid to solve problems,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淲hat are we talking about? They鈥檙e deflections, distractions 鈥� they don鈥檛 hold water in solving a real problem.鈥�

Aldermanic President Lewis Reed, Alderman Cara Spencer and City Treasurer Tishaura Jones, all Democrats, want strategies that change the trajectory for those who are identified as likely to turn to crime.

鈥楩ocused deterrence鈥�

Spencer and Tishaura Jones support 鈥渇ocused deterrence,鈥� an approach that brings in people prone to criminal behavior and offers them a 鈥渃arrot and stick,鈥� as Spencer put it, providing resources if they turn away from crime but swift repercussions if they don鈥檛. Spencer pointed to Oakland as a city that鈥檚 had success with such a focus.

鈥淚t does take a coordinated effort, which is missing from our current (crime fighting) strategy,鈥� Spencer said. 鈥淲hat we have seen is political solutions to a complicated set of issues (and) ad hoc approaches to dealing with violence, which are not effective without comprehensive strategies that include all different departments, even outside the police department.鈥�

Resources might include job placement, counseling and rental assistance. But those in the program are made aware that law enforcement is watching them closely.

鈥淢uch of the crime committed in our city, and in most cities, is committed by a select handful of individuals,鈥� Jones said in speaking of focused deterrence. 鈥淭his strategy can attack this problem head-on.鈥�

Reed is a vocal supporter of Cure Violence, which launched with $7 million in funding from the city but got off to a sputtering start last year because of the pandemic. The program is operating in three 最新杏吧原创 neighborhoods where 鈥渧iolence interrupters鈥� calm tensions before they escalate into gun violence.

鈥淚 think it needs to be expanded,鈥� Reed said. 鈥淚t will allow us to begin to anticipate certain things. A lot of beefs you see breaking out in the neighborhood where someone dies, they鈥檙e starting on social media 鈥� (Cure Violence) will help us get out in front of those issues before they play themselves out with gunfire.鈥�

While Jones said Cure Violence is a 鈥渢ool in the toolbox,鈥� Spencer said she doubts the success the program has claimed in other cities.

鈥淚鈥檓 very committed to putting in place the focused deterrence model, and that is going to cost a fraction of the Cure Violence program,鈥� Spencer said. 鈥淏efore we increase funding to any program we need to take a look at whether or not it鈥檚 effective.鈥�

Whatever the approach the winning candidate takes, it will need to be pursued aggressively. The number of homicides so far in the city is ahead of last year鈥檚 pace, one of the worst in the city鈥檚 history.

University of Missouri-最新杏吧原创 criminology professor Richard Rosenfeld studied 最新杏吧原创 and 33 other U.S. cities and found that violent crime rates rose last year in all the cities he reviewed. But 最新杏吧原创 stands out because it started with a higher rate of violent crime.

鈥淭he overall level of homicide in 最新杏吧原创 is higher than any of the other cities we looked at,鈥� Rosenfeld said. 鈥淲e are seeing the increase in homicide concentrated in the very communities and population groups where traditionally (crime has) been quite high.鈥�

Police operations

As part of their proposals to curtail gun violence, some of the candidates are pitching changes to police operations.

Spencer and Treasurer Jones said they would heed some of the recommendations of a report released in December that reviewed those operations and proposed structural improvements.

Part of Spencer鈥檚 plan includes hiring an 鈥渙fficer of equity and inclusion鈥� who would ensure fairness across race and ranks in recruitment and in the disciplinary process for officers.

Reed wants to create smaller police districts so that officers better understand their patrol areas, and hopes to provide more thorough training.

鈥淲e should have a regular review (so) that the quality of service the department is chartered with delivering to the community gets continuously better over time,鈥� Reed said. 鈥淎 lot of components have to be put in place, and some of those things would be policy-based. Quite frankly, it鈥檚 better for it to be required by an ordinance.鈥�

Andrew Jones is unwavering in his support of police, saying officers are doing a 鈥渇antastic job.鈥� The problem lies with leadership, he said. Mayor Lyda Krewson needs to 鈥渄irect resources to effect an arrest and get those people off the street,鈥� but isn鈥檛 doing so for fear of political backlash, he contends.

Krewson on Friday called Jones鈥� argument 鈥渘aive.鈥� She said she supports crime-fighting efforts but says 鈥渢hat鈥檚 just the first step. Prosecutors and judges also have an important role to play.鈥�

Nevertheless, Jones argues that city leaders 鈥渁re not allowing police to do their job.鈥� Police have intelligence on where most of the city鈥檚 serious offenses are taking place, he said, but their hands are tied.

鈥�(Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner) is not issuing warrants if she doesn鈥檛 like the police officer involved,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淲hether we have credible information, (we) leave this perpetual criminal out on the streets, terrorizing their communities. 鈥� You are going to be called racist because the police are doing their job correctly.鈥�

Gardner has drafted an 鈥渆xclusion list鈥� of officers from whom her office won鈥檛 accept warrants because the credibility of those officers is in question or there鈥檚 some other concern with their testimony.

Jones said he would perform an audit of the police department to make sure spending in each division is appropriate and called the amount spent on police overtime 鈥渆xorbitant.鈥�

Helping officers succeed

The Democratic candidates signaled support for the recently launched 鈥渃ops and clinicians鈥� program, which sends social workers with police to certain mental health-related calls. Tishaura Jones said likely 50% of the city鈥檚 911 calls don鈥檛 require police action and believes emergency response should be restructured and dispatchers retrained so that any response is in proportion to the emergency.

鈥淧olice officers are spending too much time responding to calls that could be answered by a civilian employee,鈥� she said. 鈥淩educing the number of calls officers respond (to) provides police officers with more time to respond to violent crime or engage in community policing.鈥�

Spencer said she wants to revamp 911 and hire more dispatchers so that all 911 calls are promptly answered. Right now, someone calling dispatchers might only reach a recording. Spencer also wants to create a 311 nonemergency line. Her comments came before police officials on Wednesday announced a series of changes to their dispatch operations to reduce wait times.

Reed is touting the recent approval of the 最新杏吧原创 Families Fund, which gives an additional $400,000 to CrimeStoppers so rewards for information on suspects are increased to encourage witnesses and others to come forward.

鈥淚n the city of 最新杏吧原创, our (case) closure rate in a good year is only 30%,鈥� Reed said. 鈥淪o 70% of the people who murder somebody in the city have done it with absolute impunity. There鈥檚 no cost for it. So it shouldn鈥檛 be a surprise when the behavior is repeated over and over again.鈥�

Spencer and Tishaura Jones, meanwhile, have long sought the closing of the 最新杏吧原创 Medium Security Institution, otherwise known as the workhouse, a deteriorating jail that activists have criticized for years. Inmates at the city鈥檚 other jail, the City Justice Center, were recently moved to the workhouse after some of them refused to follow orders by CJC guards and argued the center wasn鈥檛 doing enough to protect them from exposure to COVID-19.

Both Spencer and Jones maintain that the workhouse can be closed, and there are other options for keeping inmates safe. Jones cast doubt on whether the CJC was truly too crowded, and Spencer suggested some inmates could be housed in other facilities, such as those in surrounding counties.

Reed, though, called it 鈥渋rresponsible鈥� to close the workhouse when it was a better option to protect inmates from the coronavirus.

鈥淎nybody in their right mind that is being honest should tell the public it is absolutely unsafe to overcrowd people at the CJC when we have the workhouse,鈥� Reed said.

Andrew Jones said any decision to close the workhouse would be dependent on engineering studies and other reviews, and said to this point he hasn鈥檛 seen any indication its unsound.

Fighting crime from above

Moving from the ground to the skies, legislation has been proposed to allow the use of aerial surveillance as a crime-fighting tool.

Spencer and Treasurer Jones oppose the move, with Jones suggesting residents would be 鈥渢raumatized鈥� by the city using 鈥渢ools of war.鈥�

Andrew Jones said he鈥檇 consider it as long as it鈥檚 constitutional. Reed is open to the idea, he said, arguing that solving crime on behalf of grieving families is paramount.

In other areas, Spencer said she plans to expand the city鈥檚 problem properties unit and refocus it as a 鈥減roblem landlord unit鈥� that would rein in landlords in the city who habitually lease to 鈥渂ad actors鈥� who bring crime into neighborhoods, she said.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 have a concerted effort to go after (problem landlords),鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat kind of program pays for itself. ... We鈥檇 be enforcing laws we already have on the books.鈥�

Tishaura Jones wants to open 鈥渟obering centers鈥� so that those with substance abuse problems have a safe place to become sober, and have places where drugs can be turned over without fear of arrest.

鈥淚 truly believe that if we want to solve gun violence as a region we have to declare it a public health crisis,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淭he response is different and then we鈥檙e looking at root causes. ... We have to develop an 鈥楢m I my brother鈥檚 keeper?鈥� mentality and all hands have to be on deck to provide ways to get at the root causes of the current crisis.鈥�

Reed said he considers promoting economic growth and investing in the city鈥檚 recreation centers a part of public safety measures. A 2016 estimate put the capital needs for the city鈥檚 recreation centers at $10 million, Reed said, but another analysis would need to be done.

Andrew Jones said organizations that address inequities in the city already exist, and that the public safety conversation should focus on ensuring police have the tools to reign in violent criminals.

鈥淲e are conflating these services (and) actual boots on the ground, police doing their job effectively,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he 最新杏吧原创 city police department is short on manpower. How are we going to redirect a budget that needs to be directed at getting violent criminals off the street? (My opponents) ignore all of the fantastic professional organizations and agencies that exist that are doing a phenomenal job working with those with mental health issues, with the homeless, those with socioeconomic problems.鈥�

For these various reasons Jones said he didn鈥檛 agree with calls by criminal justice reformists to 鈥渄efund the police鈥� and doesn鈥檛 see a need for wholesale police reform efforts.

Spencer said there needs to be more transparency in use-of-force investigations to build more trust in the community. Tishaura Jones also supports greater openness with police disciplinary practices.

Reed鈥檚 view was similar.

鈥淲e will not do anything in terms of defunding police that will leave us less safe (but) there鈥檚 little to no transparency right now,鈥� Reed said. 鈥淪o absolutely, improvement could be made in those arenas.鈥�