St. Louis Police Lost More Than 100 Civilian Staff During Pandemic

The exodus of staff includes almost 25 percent of the department's dispatchers

Jul 13, 2023 at 12:45 pm

The SLMPD headquarters downtown.

The number of civilians working for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in non-officer roles took a big hit during the pandemic, according to data made available by the department to the Riverfront Times through a records request.

As of last December, the department's civilian staff — which includes dispatchers, forensic technicians and clerks, among other jobs — was down more than 20 percent at the end of last year compared to pre-pandemic levels. In December 2019, the SLMPD's civilian staff numbered 490. As of December 2022, that number had dropped to 381.

The number of people working as dispatchers or dispatch supervisors declined by about a quarter from the end of 2019 to December 2022. As of the last day of last year, there were a total of 60 dispatchers, dispatch managers and dispatch supervisors. That number stood at 78 at the end of 2019. The number of people working in that role remained steady in the first year of COVID-19, before dropping to 69 at the end of 2021 and then falling further throughout last year.

Police dispatchers are separate jobs from fire and EMS dispatchers, though there has in the past been talk of merging the positions into one unit.

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City leaders have long faced criticism over long wait times and other difficulties faced by people who call 911. The issue saw renewed scrutiny earlier this month when a tree fell on 33-year-old Katherine Coen's car in the Grove neighborhood during a storm. Bystanders said they tried for an hour to get through to emergency services. By the time first responders arrived, Coen had passed away.

County residents had similar difficulties reaching emergency services that same weekend when a tree fell on and ultimately killed 5-year-old Robert "RJ" Lawrence in Jennings.

Yesterday, the Post-Dispatch reported that the family of 36-year-old Missouri National Guardsman Richard Schlesing has sued the city after he accidentally fatally shot himself in his car in south city and tried in vain for a “substantial” amount of time to connect to a 911 operator.

"For years, [Mayor Tishaura] Jones and the city have done little to nothing to actually fix the 911 system despite the same issues and problems continuing to be present," the suit says.

An SLMPD spokesperson deferred questions about civilian staffing levels to the city's Department of Personnel.

The director for that department, Sonya Jenkins-Gray tells the RFT that the city is actively identifying and recruiting qualified candidates for the open positions.

Whether or not the department has adequate numbers of police officers has been long debated. Some in the department say that they are around 100 officers short. Others have argued the current number of officers is adequate and normal when compared to departments in similarly sized cities.