ST. LOUIS – Following multiple fights that canceled the Thurtene Carnival, public safety has become the main focus at the Cabinet in Community event, drawing concern from citizens.
“We launched a regional violence reduction strategy surrounding counties everywhere from O’Fallon, IL, to O’Fallon, MO, because crime doesn’t stop at our borders and neither should solutions and interventions,” Mayor Tishaura Jones said.
Residents voiced their worries about safety and said that despite the city reporting a decrease in violence, they continue to see it in the city. St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Tracy continues to work alongside citizens and their concerns.
“Some people had individual information that I already get at community meetings, so I would try to take them privately to work on some of these locations with some of my leaders in this area…we do have our issues in the City of St. Louis but we have made progress,” he said.
Mayor Jones discussed that the three steps to public safety is prevention, intervention, and enforcement. The Office of Violence Prevention has several initiatives in hopes of decreasing threats to public safety.
“If you have people walking around with weapons and guns, we have Show Me Peace, where they can go out and gauge these. These are people that have the same lived experience who the people that engage in this activity can relate to,” Wilford Pinkney, commissioner of the Office of Violence Prevention, said.
Mayor Jones also announced that she has granted raises to 911 dispatchers and is planning to build a new 911 center.
