Defund. Re-envision. Transform is a grassroots campaign anchored by Arch City Defenders, Action St.Louis, CAPCR, and Forward through Ferguson which demands the defunding of SLMPD, re-envision public safety through reinvestment into the community resources that actually keep our communities safe, and the transformation of the St. Louis region.

According to a 2020 audit of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD), there have been 100-150 vacant positions for at least the last three years at SLMPD. See Missouri State Auditor Report of the City of St.Louis Department of Public Safety (Sept.2020), https://app.auditor.mo.gov/Repository/Press/2020079603096.pdf. According to SLMPD’s Fiscal Year ’21 proposed budget provided by Sunshine request to the Grassroots Accountability Movement, approximately $10M of SLMPD’S more than $200M operating budget goes to vacant positions. See City of St. Louis, Missouri Fiscal Year 2021 Annual Operating Plan, As Adopted July 1,2020,at S3, available at https://www.stlouismo.gov/government/departments/budget/documents/upload/AOP-Executive-Summary-ALL.pdf.

We demand the 150 vacant SLMPD positions be defunded and not filled. SLMPD is holding the peoples’ funds hostage to scale up on officers of the most deadly police force in the nation. We demand those funds be used towards community based solutions that get to the root causes of crime such as housing instability, loss of wages/employment, and lack of access to healthcare. It is essential that we fund real public safety measures such as jobs, quality, affordable, and accessible housing, health care, and community based mental health services, especially for the City's growing population experiencing homelessness. Families in St. Louis deserve a safe place to live, work, go to school, and play. Moving these resources from policing our communities to investing in them is essential to doing that.