Mayor Spencer Unveils Plan to Refocus St. Louis Police Board on Officers, Oversight, and Public Trust

Mayor Cara Spencer today released her plan for building one of the nation's premier police departments in St. Louis, laying out four priorities for the state-controlled Board of Police Commissioners, on which she serves. The plan calls on the Board to shift its attention from recent executive pay and media deals to the department's core needs: staffing, accountability, prevention, and public trust.

"St. Louis can have one of the best police departments in the country," said Mayor Spencer. "Our officers have helped bring crime down, and the department has a strong foundation to build on. But a police department is only as strong as the body overseeing it and the priorities that body sets."

The Mayor reaffirmed that St. Louis should control its own police department, as Missouri voters overwhelmingly endorsed in 2012, and that the City's legal challenge to state control will continue.

"St. Louisans can't afford to put public safety on hold while the courts decide," said Mayor Spencer. "As long as this Board exists, I will use my seat on it to push for the improvements our residents and officers deserve."

The plan follows weeks in which the Board, in two closed-door meetings billed as emergencies, approved a new contract for Chief Robert Tracy worth more than $1 million above his existing contract, which had more than two years remaining. The Board also nearly approved a reality TV agreement that would have given a production company permanent ownership of footage of St. Louis residents. Meanwhile, SLMPD operates with roughly 850 officers, down from 1,250 in 2020, and civilian staff have gone 16 months without a contract.

"The Board found time to notice two 'emergency' meetings to approve $110,000 for a raise for the highest-paid person in the department," said Mayor Spencer. "It has not found time to negotiate a new contract with civilian staff, whose contract expired in July 2025. Those are the wrong priorities."

The Mayor's four priorities and what she is asking the Board to do:

1. Get officer pay right. Immediately issue an RFP for an independent compensation study to bring starting salaries in line with regional and national markets, without negatively affecting any current officer.
2. Exercise real oversight and coordinate with the City. Adopt a resolution affirming the Board's responsibility for operational oversight, and require SLMPD to share Incident Action Plans with the City Emergency Management Agency and Fire Department before every major city-wide event, consistent with national incident management standards.
3. Accelerate violence and crime prevention. Give the City's Office of Violence Prevention standing access to shooting reviews, and set joint quarterly targets with the Director of Public Safety on traffic safety, problem properties, and infrastructure vandalism.
4. Commit to transparency, fairness, and fiscal integrity. Publish outside-counsel billing records within 30 days and strictly follow the Sunshine Law; schedule promotional exams within six months; return to the table to reach a contract with civilian staff; publish current and annual demographic data on the force and command staff; create clearer processes for civilian complaints to be addressed and civilian oversight.

Mayor Spencer said she will bring the priorities to the Board at its coming meetings.

"The women and men of SLMPD do hard and dangerous work, and they deserve a Board that is focused on them," said Mayor Spencer. "None of this is radical. These are the basics of a well-run police department, and all commissioners must act to make them a priority."

The full plan is below.