ST. LOUIS — St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones has signed a bill into law aimed at keeping new police officers on the force for a longer period of time. The bill penalizes officers who leave the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department too soon after graduating from the city's police academy.
Board Bill 195 was passed unanimously by the Board of Aldermen last week. It requires officers to stay for at least four years or pay the city back the cost of their law enforcement training.
The cost for training adds up to almost $37,000, which the city covers.
“St. Louisans want to know that when their tax dollars and our city’s academy are used to train police officers that they will stay to serve our city, not go elsewhere,” said Mayor Tishaura O. Jones in a release Thursday. “Other cities try to recruit officers trained at our academy; if surrounding municipalities want to take advantage of St. Louis’ academy and resources, they’ll have to pay for it.”
The summary of the bill says both “trainees who don’t accept law enforcement positions with the City or who leave their City law enforcement positions in a short period of time” could be held responsible for paying back the cost of their six-month police academy training.
Over the past year, a number of city officers turned in their uniforms with some on the force calling it an "exodus".
5 On Your Side's Christine Byers looked into the department's shrinking force numbers months ago.
The latest numbers are from 2021. Last year, 178 police officers left the department. Normally, between 75 to 90 officers leave in a given year.
