The Justice Department awarded more than $68 million to St. Louis and more than $63 million to Jackson, Mississippi, on Monday. Both cities plan to use federal money to change how their police departments investigate crimes and respond to calls. St. Louis wants to improve its police radio system and expand its existing drone fleet. Jackson plans to rebuild its forensic capacity and expand a command center that can draw on camera feeds. The Jackson City Council still has to decide whether to accept the money.
Monday's announcements put dollar figures and local spending plans on awards the Justice Department first signaled on Oct. 30. The department picked four jurisdictions for its Model Cities Initiative. Jacksonville, Florida, and East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, are the other two. The department says it will work with each jurisdiction to finalize and carry out its public safety plan. For residents in St. Louis and Jackson, that leaves a difference between what local officials have proposed and what the departments can put into service.
St. Louis plans to spend over three years
The St. Louis award would help the Metropolitan Police Department recruit and keep officers and upgrade the Real-Time Crime Center. Sen. Eric Schmitt's office also listed improvements to the police academy and radio communications. Missourinet reported that the grant goes to the state, which oversees the department, and that the department has three years to spend the money. The award covers more than equipment. Schmitt's office named officer compensation and wellness alongside upgrades to the academy.
For emergency response, the Justice Department listed an expansion of gunshot detection coverage and a plan to double the department's drone fleet. Both would add to systems St. Louis already uses. The department's announcement didn't give a timetable for either expansion or specify which neighborhoods would gain gunshot detection coverage. Its year-to-date crime figures, including a 21% drop in reported homicides and a 25% drop in reported robberies, describe changes the local department reported before this award.
Jackson's council has a decision to make
The Jackson award would support a larger real-time public safety center and upgrades to forensic and ballistics work. The department says Jackson plans to add personnel and improve services for crime victims. Its proposal also includes behavioral health and reentry programs. Mississippi Today reported that Jackson's application calls for more cameras connected to the existing command center and a database linking 911 calls to abandoned properties.
The same report said the City Council authorized the police department to apply but still must vote on accepting the grant. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the money would become available early next year. That timing, and the council's decision, matter to residents weighing what might change around them. The mayor backed the award, while the ACLU of Mississippi raised concerns about how the partnership could affect civil liberties. Mississippi Today reported that the grant is structured as a cooperative agreement, which gives the Justice Department an active role in carrying it out.
How the two awards fit into the program
Together the two announced awards exceed $131 million. Jacksonville's award is more than $73 million, according to its Nov. 6 notice. The Justice Department had already announced an award for East Baton Rouge Parish last week. The cities are pursuing different changes under the same federal program. St. Louis is looking to scale up technologies its officers already use, while Jackson's proposal includes forensic improvements and a council decision still ahead. The federal awards also leave open how the cities will measure the effect of their investments. In St. Louis, recruitment and retention are separate goals from upgrading dispatch or detection technology. In Jackson, adding investigators and supporting crime victims are distinct from collecting more information at the command center. A spending plan can show which projects are funded first. The next documents that can show what residents will see are Jackson's council action and the finalized spending and implementation plans in both cities.
