St. Louis County Mayors say they have an idea on how to improve public safety in St. Louis City. It involves a merger -- but not like previous proposals.
The mayors of Wildwood, Manchester, Brentwood, and Bridgeton say combine the city and county prosecutors into one office.
"If you think about it, the only reason we have two is because St. Louis City is it's own entity. All of the other counties in the state of Missouri, despite having a large city in them, just have one prosecutors office. So why don't we try that in the St. Louis region as well?"
Bridgeton's Terry Briggs says it would be more like the judicial circuits everywhere else. How to accomplish this?
"The state senate is getting ready to debate a crime bill that's coming up either later this week or next week and the intent is to try to get an amendment into that bill that would accomplish this change in the state laws."
Briggs says violence in the core has an effect on the entire region
"When you're out of town and people say 'where're you from?', you say you're from just 'St. Louis', period. And we feel as though it casts a black eye, the current situation, on the entire region. So, in order to correct that, that's why we've come up with this unique solution."
As of yet, no lawmaker has agreed to carry their proposal.
@2023 Audacy (KMOX). All rights reserved.
