Office of the Mayor

The Board of Police Commissioners of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD) voted at its December 2011 meeting to create a public safety partnership between the City of St. Louis, Mayor Francis G. Slay's office, SLMPD, and University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL).  The public safety partnership will seek to implement recommendations and principles contained in the 2011 IBM Smarter Cities Challenge St. Louis Report.  That report found that better coordination, communication, and accountability are the keys to improving public safety.  To increase communication and coordination, this partnership will work to better connect the activities of the Police Department to the Public Safety agencies in City Hall.

Faculty and doctoral students from UMSL's Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, one of the top such programs in the nation, will help connect St. Louis to leading crime reduction initiatives throughout the nation.

This partnership is a great step to help St. Louis visitors and residents see a dramatic increase in public safety.  This partnership will learn from successes and mistakes of other cities, and its efforts will be systematic and sustained.  Performance measures will be put in place to show how well the City is meeting its safety goals.