Historical March 1987 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
It is hard to comprehend how our City’s police force has been reduced to some 1564 officers at a buoyant time in the city’s history.
We have fought a valiant battle to save our City and are now cited in the national press for our success.
This is certainly no time to sacrifice safety on our streets, and jeopardize our position, especially when the crime rate is accelerating. Moreover, those who have stayed, and the young people who have returned to rehabilitate our neighborhoods, deserve all the protection we can give them.
With more activity, we need more police, not less, as do our visitors who are coming from all over the country to view our rebirth, visit the Arch, Union Station, and the Saint Louis Centre.
In 1970, with Mayor Cervantes’ foresight, we citizens staged a FIGHT CRIME CAMPAIGN and won a city sales tax increase, with one of the goals then being the addition of more police officers.
An effort was made then to reach the authorized number of officers, which was 2,232, and this increase showed immediate results with major crimes decreasing in May 1970 by 15.3 percent. Citizens involved with more police officers were credited with the drop in crime. Today our Neighborhood Watch is the newest edition of citizen involvement, but it will be useless if we do not have enough police officers.
Once more the time has come for the Mayor, the Board of Aldermen, and the Police Board to work together on this crucial issue and take action. Crime has already escalated on the northside; and ACORN members are begging for more police patrol.
And they deserve it immediately!
It took long and strong demands by Women for City Living and the Women’s Crusade Against Crime to win the battle against the pimps and the prostitutes with accompanying drugs and robberies, even murders, in the Washington Boulevard area of the Stroll.
Our citizens have a right to safety in their neighborhoods. Money must somehow be found to pay more police officers, upgrade the Police Department where needed, and restore the effective TACT squad, or a similar operation, to focus on crucial areas when needed.
There will be no progress in our City if there is no safety in our homes and streets.
In this day of affluence there is money when the need is urgent. Protecting our people and maintaining our beautiful Saint Louis is urgent!
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, March 1987.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1987_03.pdf, printed page(s) 2; PDF page(s) 2.
