St. Louis Sees Historically Low Crime in First Two Months of 2025

St. Louis saw a historic decrease in crime in the first two months of 2025, with 15 homicides through March 2, a decrease of 16 compared to the same period of 2024, a year in which the city saw the fewest homicides in 11 years.

Violent crime was down across the board, including a 36% decrease in burglaries, 42% decrease in auto thefts, and 53% decrease in shooting incidents.

“One life affected by violent crime is one too many, which is why it is extremely encouraging to see the amount of violent crime continue to drop drastically in St. Louis,” said Mayor Tishaura O. Jones. “We have more work to do, but violent crime is on the retreat in St. Louis, and I am incredibly thankful to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the Circuit Attorney’s Office, the Office of Violence Prevention, and all the community organizations and residents who do so much to make St. Louis safer.” 

In the past two years, Mayor Jones has raised salaries for police officers twice; in 2023, officers received historic raises ranging from 8% to 13%, and earlier this year, Mayor Jones signed another round of raises of up to 7%. The City and the St. Louis Police Officers Association are now back at the table negotiating another round of raises to increase the department's competitiveness and show the City’s appreciation for our officers.

In July 2022, Mayor Jones created the Office of Violence Prevention, which designs and coordinates violence intervention programs, working with dozens of community organizations such as Show Me Peace (deescalation and life coaching), the Diamond Diva Empowerment Foundation (supporting survivors of domestic violence), and Living in Victory (housing for people recovering from substance abuse). The overall goal of the Office of Violence Prevention is to stop violence before it happens by helping people get onto and stay on a non-violent path where they can thrive.

The neighborhoods targeted by OVP saw a 52% decrease in murders and nonnegligent manslaughter from 2023 to 2024, outperforming the rest of the city. The City is pursuing a strategy of street intervention, cognitive behavioral theory, and focused deterrence to expand this impact and was selected as an honoree for the FOCUS St. Louis What’s Right with the Region last week. 

Despite these efforts and the clear results - including a 43% drop in homicides in St. Louis from 2020 to 2024 (the state saw a drop of 35% in the same period, largely attributable to the positive results in St. Louis), state legislators continue their efforts to take away local control of the SLMPD, overruling the 63.9% of Missourians who voted for local control in 2012. 

“When given a chance to vote on this issue, Missourians were extremely clear that they believe local police departments should be accountable to local residents. And under local leadership, St. Louis is now becoming a safer city,” said Mayor Jones. “But as it turns out, Missouri Republicans don’t care about the safety or the will of the people of this state.”

State legislators and anyone else wanting to learn more about the improvements to public safety in St. Louis can visit slmpd.org/stats