Headlines like this lack context. The average city has 1.8 to 2.6 officers per 1,000 people. If STL were aligned with the high end of the average we’d have 762 officers. Our authorized force level is 4.1 per 1,000, giving an inaccurate representation of a shortage.
The questions that need to be asked is how are police spending their time? What is causing our slow response times given our current force numbers are much higher than the national average? Is there a work slowdown like occurred in Baltimore & other cities with protests?
Nov 11, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Version 3 of the Map just posted. See interactive version here: stlouis-mo.gov/government/dep…
The committee is taking public comment again:
THIS SATURDAY at 10am via zoom. You must email the clerk of the Board at kennedyt@stlouis-mo.gov by 2:00PM FRIDAY to testify. More information here: stlouis-mo.gov/events/eventde…
Apr 30, 2020 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Woke up heartbroken this morning over the decision of the Mayor’s office to break up the homeless encampments.
There’s a lot of things that the City had done right regarding COVID-19 response. Addressing the needs of our unhoused community is not one of them. 1/
Our City has been behind on addressing the needs of our unhoused community even before COVID-19. When the City forced the closure of Larry Rice, often serving over 200 people, and replaced it with a a shelter that only serves 60, we left many in the cold, literally. 2/
Mar 24, 2020 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
The vulture capitalists never stop.
I just got off a 23 minute survey by a Issues & Answers research group asking Qs about what it would take for me to support a charter amendment allowing the President of the BoA to spend $1 billion from privatizing the airport. 1/

The latest scheme seems to be that they would put $1 billion in trust funds supporting 1) police 2) neighborhood development 3) job training 4) streets 5) clean neighborhoods 6) city infrastructure 2/
Sep 7, 2019 • 20 tweets • 5 min read
Over the last few days I’ve gotten a number of threatening comments because I do not believe that marijuana possession should be used as probable cause for stops and we need to work to limit police/civilian interactions. Let’s dive into the data/public policy on this.
The thing is, the data and work around best police practices agrees with me. We have to start cutting back on the War on Drugs and the interactions it produces that fray public trust: washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-co…
