About Us - The Department of Public Safety

Overview

The Department of Public Safety is the largest municipal government department in the City of St. Louis with more than 3,400 employees. The Divisions of the Department of Public Safety are: 

• Building Division
• City Emergency Management Agency
• Corrections Division
• Excise Division (liquor control office)
• Fire Department, which includes the Bureau of Emergency Medical Services
• Metropolitan Police Department
• Neighborhood Stabilization Team, which includes Citizens' Service Bureau
• Office of Special Events

Our Mission

The mission of the Department and its Director is to use the department's resources to safeguard the City's state of well-being, protect lives and property, and ensure the complete safety of the 319,294 people who live in the City, and the one million people who work, traverse, and visit the City of St. Louis daily. The staff of the various divisions are hard working and committed to improving their level of performance as well as developing policy and procedures that are transparent, understandable and streamlined. Together, we strive to be the premier municipal public safety department. 

Our Responsibilities

The Department of Public Safety is responsible for:

• Code enforcement in the development of new construction and substantial rehabilitation)
• preventing use of unsafe buildings (monitoring unsafe buildings to prevent usage)
• emergency management planning (and execution)
• fire prevention and suppression (fire education and suppression)
• emergency medical services
• land use zoning
• issuing permits for residential and commercial construction, business occupancy, the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages
• law enforcement
• management of correctional facilities (and inmates)
• neighborhood safety, enrichment programs and citizen services (work order and complaint reporting system)
• special events planning.