Who suffers from cuts in police funding? There are over 1,000 unsolved murders in this blue city

The police in St. Louis, Missouri, have been struggling with drastic budget cuts and severe staff shortages since police funding was cut. This despite the fact that more than 1,000 murders have gone unsolved in the city and it is regularly ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in America.

In 2019 and 2020, St. Louis had one of the highest murder rates of any major American city per 100,000 residents. One of those deaths was the killing of former St. Louis police captain David Dorn during protests following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

However, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD) says it has had some success in curbing rising crime rates, reporting a 21% decrease in the murder rate in 2023 compared to the previous year.

Yet more than 1,000 murders committed in the city over the past decade remain unsolved.

Thomas Hargrove, founder of the Murder Accountability Project, a group that collects data on unsolved murder cases, reports that from 2013 to 2022, there were 1,903 murders in St. Louis, of which 1,068 remain unsolved.

This corresponds to a clearance rate of almost 44% according to police and FBI data.

“St. Louis has a lower clearance rate than the national average,” Hargrove told Fox News Digital. “For most of these years, most police departments have had clearance rates of around 55%, maybe even closer to 60%.”

In St. Louis, that figure is significantly lower, but major downtown areas regularly report clearance rates of less than 50%, so St. Louis is not a particular outlier.”

Hargrove said St. Louis is facing serious financial challenges as the city’s tax revenues decline and people move away.

“Over the last three years, St. Louis has had, on average, about 6,000 fewer residents than the year before,” Hargrove said.

The number of police officers has also dropped. The department had a budget of 1,220 officers, but according to a December report, more than 300 positions were vacant. In 1998, the staffing level was still over 1,600 officers.

In 2019, the police homicide budget was cut for the third time since 2012, American Public Media reported.

“They’re trying to do more with less. That’s a problem. And frankly, homicide cases and homicide clearance rates are a function of available personnel and other resources,” Hargrove said.

“It’s not uncommon for major cities like St. Louis to suffer from a resource problem, and St. Louis is one of the worst.”

Dorn’s widow, Ann Dorn, told Fox News earlier this year that the movement to defund the police was having a negative impact on morale in the city and that the city was “losing cops in droves” as a result.

Both Democratic Representative Cori Bush of Missouri and St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones supported defunding the St. Louis Police Department.

In 2021, Jones diverted $4 million from the police overtime budget to hire social workers within the police department and increase funding for affordable housing.

Nevertheless, incumbent police officers will receive a salary increase of between 8 and 13 percent this year.

Bush and Jones’ offices did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

“Nobody wants to come to town and become a police officer anymore. It’s out of control. It was never like this … until five, ten years ago,” Dorn said.

Sergeant Charles Wall, a spokesman for the SLMPD, told Fox News Digital that the department’s clearance rate is higher due to a change in how the numbers are reported.

Since 2021, the department’s clearance rate has been tracked through the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and automatically updated in the system when a case is solved.

This was not the case before 2021, when an older system was used, Wall said.

“We don’t have the ability to routinely review and sort out these numbers, and that’s the great advantage of NIBRS technology. These numbers are constantly updated to reflect these changes,” Wall said.

“As an agency, we have solved more cases, but we cannot easily quantify them. The way they are reported can be misleading, and it is unfortunate that this confusion exists.”

Nevertheless, according to available figures, the black population in St. Louis is disproportionately affected by the number of unsolved murder cases: From 2013 to 2022, the clearance rate for white victims was 48%, compared to 36.5% for black victims. According to 2022 census data, about 43.7% of the city’s 298,000 residents are black.

“In most major cities, murders of black people are less likely to be solved than murders of white people,” says Hargrove.

“And the main reason for that is the refusal of the black community to trust the police and be willing to come forward and testify to what people have seen. That’s the only way murders can be solved. If there is no cooperation between the police and the community they serve, crimes will not be solved. It’s as simple as that.”

Some critics blame the disproportionately high clearance rates on an underrepresentation of black detectives in St. Louis. There are also cases in the black community where potential witnesses have been threatened, which has had a chilling effect on the community because people are afraid to talk to police.

For example, the Marshall Project, a criminal justice nonprofit, reports that 16-year-old James Scales witnessed the murder of his friend Dwayne Clanton, 18, in December 2016.

Nevertheless, according to available figures, the black population in St. Louis is disproportionately affected by the number of unsolved murder cases: From 2013 to 2022, the clearance rate for white victims was 48%, compared to 36.5% for black victims. According to 2022 census data, about 43.7% of the city’s 298,000 residents are black.

“In most major cities, black murders are solved less often than white murders,” Hargrove says. “And the main reason for that is the refusal of the black community to trust the police and be willing to come forward and testify to what people have seen. That’s the only way murders are solved. If there is no cooperation between the police and the community they serve, crimes will not be solved. It’s as simple as that.”

Some critics blame the disproportionately high clearance rates on an underrepresentation of black detectives in St. Louis. There are also cases in the black community where potential witnesses have been threatened, which has had a chilling effect on the community because people are afraid to talk to police.

For example, the Marshall Project, a criminal justice nonprofit, reports that 16-year-old James Scales witnessed the murder of his friend Dwayne Clanton, 18, in December 2016.

Before her resignation, Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a lawsuit seeking her removal on three grounds: failure to prosecute ongoing cases; failure to bring charges in cases initiated by police; and failure to counsel and inform victims and their families about the status of the cases. Gardner said Bailey’s attack on her was politically and racially motivated.

Even though the number of unsolved murders is high, the SLMPD seems to be turning things around.

According to Wall, the authority says 92 of the 162 murders in the city last year were solved, which represents a clearance rate of almost 57 percent.

So far in 2024, there have been 80 murders, of which 51 (64%) have been solved, although the data for the last 18 months has yet to be verified by the FBI.

Additionally, there was a 24% decrease in shootings, according to a 2023 crime report released by the mayor’s office and SLMPD.

There was also a decline in the categories of grand theft, car theft and burglary.

“We are constantly looking for new information and investigations to solve murder cases,” Wall said, noting that dedicated investigators are still working on a gruesome case from 1983 when a black girl – an unknown female – between the ages of 8 and 11 was found dead.

“Our unsolved cases are still open. We will continue to pursue these cases and ultimately bring justice to the victims and the families of the murder victims,” ​​Wall said.

“One unsolved case is too many. Our investigators are working tirelessly to bring justice to the victims and their families.”

Hargrove, meanwhile, said the entire city suffers when murderers are not brought to justice.

“Nothing good happens when most of the murderers are free again and murderers are available to commit more murders,” says Hargrove.

“Uncaught murderers also inspire others and show that murder goes unpunished. Uncaught murderers instigate revenge killings. A loved one may feel compelled to take the law into their own hands if the police cannot arrest them.”

“Murder can lead to murder, especially unsolved murders.”