ST. LOUIS (AP) - St. Louis' mayor says he's looking to add 80 new police officers in the city as soon as possible to address concerns about St. Louis' rising number of homicides.
Francis Slay says adding the additional officers would bring the police force back to full strength of roughly 1,300 in the city where 154 killings have taken place this year.
The mayor, Police Chief Sam Dotson and St. Louis criminologist Rick Rosenfeld all say a surge of heroin abuse and warring suppliers could help explain the spike in violence. Dotson and Slay are expected to raise the issue at a multi-city, Washington, D.C., crime summit that's led by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
National estimates suggest that heroin-related admissions to rehab centers have jumped to 40 percent in 2014 from 5 percent in 2007, Dotson said Monday. The National Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse estimates there were 376 heroin overdose deaths in the St. Louis region in 2014, up from 139 people in 2007.
Rosenfeld said national emergency room data also reflected a rise in heroin admissions.
Slay said Tuesday that law enforcement was the "last resort" in a fight against violence that also must address issues of poverty, education and employment.
"It will take all hands on deck to address this," Slay said.
Getting the police department back to full staffing will cost the city about $4.5 million, an amount within the city's budget, said Slay's chief of staff, Mary Ellen Ponder. The city spent roughly $10.6 million in overtime costs for police officers during the 2015 fiscal year that ended in July.