St Louis prosecutions soar under new DA, but NIBRS shows crime is actually down in the city
ST LOUIS, MISSOURI: The new St Louis district attorney has reportedly doubled the number of criminal prosecutions in his first three months despite data by NIBRS indicating that the overall crime has decreased in the city compared to last year.
Gabe Gore, 54, was appointed as the new St Louis Circuit Attorney in May after Democrat Kim Gardner resigned amid pressure from Missouri's Attorney General Andrew Bailey.
The 48-year-old Gardner received severe criticism for her lenient approach towards law enforcement which allowed criminals to return to St Louis' streets as crime spiked throughout the Midwest hub.
Elected in 2016, Gardner was part of a movement of prosecutors, who advocated for diversion to mental health or drug abuse treatment for low-level crimes and actively pursued the release of prisoners who had been unfairly convicted, according to Missouri Lawyer Media.
How many cases Gabe Gore has filled in his first three months?
The St Louis Post-Dispatch discovered that Gore, who was sworn in on May 31, had already filed over 1,400 cases in the last three months.
Gardner, an attorney backed by George Soros, submitted just 620 documents over the same three-month period last year, according to Daily Mail.
''I don't think there's any magic to what we're doing,'' Gore told the Post-Dispatch, adding ''We are just charging the violations of law.''
The city saw a spike in charges after their new circuit attorney's office spent more time reviewing cases applied for by St Louis police and prioritized less severe offenses that were largely unprosecuted under Gardner.
''These are things that drive people out of the city. These are things that can't be considered to be the cost of living somewhere," Gore noted.
He added that his new goal is to clear the backlog of 2,000 cases that Gardner created during her time in office by the beginning of 2024.
One drastic change that the St Louis attorney's office witnessed during Gore’s tenure was the employment of new attorneys.
The office was drastically understaffed during Gardner's leadership. When she took office there were 60 attorneys, but when she left, only around 30 remained.
After taking over the office, Gore added 21 more solicitors, which means the office is still understaffed but is now far more prepared to handle a large number of cases than his predecessor.
''We're still relying on attorneys basically coming to work every day and doing more than they should be asked to do,'' Gore said. ''Everybody's pitching in and doing the best they can.''
Has the crime rate actually declined in St Louis?
Despite reports that Gore has filed 1400 cases in his office, a date by the National Incident-Based Reporting System indicates that the crime rate has drastically declined in St Louis.
The statistics showed that the murders and non-negligent Manslaughter are down about 66% from this time last year. A total of 32 killings occurred in the city in August 2022, while only 11 have occurred this year.
Meanwhile, reported aggravated assaults were down about 6.5% through the end of July. Robberies were also down 17%, and burglaries more than 13%.
The total number of person crime reported in 2023 were 613 which was 2.4% less than 2022.