Police officer staffing in St. Louis has reportedly hit its lowest level on record as a large swath of resignations and retirements have made it difficult to stay fully staffed.
The St. Louis Police Officers Association reported that 116 police officers have resigned or retired in 2023. An alert on its website says there were 312 police vacancies as of Dec. 4 after 17 more officers left in the past month.
The police union said officers are tired of unreasonable workloads and a lack of support from politicians, the Messenger reports.
“I’ve never heard of anything that low,” said Joe Steiger, business manager for the organization told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “When I started back in 1995, there were closer to 1,600 officers, and now they’re down under 1,000. That’s just crazy.”
