Mayor Jones, Executive Page 'Actively Looking' At Ways To Combine City, County Police Services

CBS St. Louis

April 22, 2021

St. Louis City Mayor Tishaura Jones said she's talking with St. Louis County Executive Sam Page about merging some city and county public safety services to "make sure that everybody in the region is safe." The proposal, presented by St. Louis Budget Director Paul Payne, would zero out the budget for the facility. According to the proposal, roughly $7.8 million would be saved by closing the facility, and that money would be allocated to several other areas.

"We are actively looking at ways where we can combine our services when it comes to public safety," Jones said. "I think that the possibilities are endless because this type of collaboration and cooperation has existed in our region for many, many years."

Jones said these efforts could include contracts and 911 operations, saying if someone called 911 in the city and all the operators are busy, the call could be sent to the county instead.
"I think that people are used to doing things a certain way. And honestly our citizens don't have time for us to say that we always did it that way because doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity," Jones said. "They pay our salaries and so the least that we can do is talk to each other and see how we can work together to make sure that everybody in the region is safe." The group Better Together announced Monday afternoon that it will withdraw its petition to merge St. Louis City and St. Louis County.

The nonprofit group Better Together released a plan to merge the city and county. The group planned to spend $25 million on a campaign to put the merger on a statewide ballot in November 2020 but the group withdrew its petition in May 2019.
"If the city is not safe or the county's not safe ... Our destinies are linked and we have to start acting and working together like they are," Jones said.