January 14, 2014 6:45 am
By Joel Currier
ST. LOUIS • Homicides in St. Louis were up in 2013 while overall crime fell last year for the seventh straight year, St. Louis police say.
Though criminologists warn that homicides don’t tell the whole story of crime in a city, it’s a statistic that catapults the need to reduce violent crime to the top of Police Chief Sam Dotson’s 2014 priority list.
“I think the community needs to know that we see the same things that they do,” Dotson said Monday. “That violence is a problem. That crime is a challenge for us. But crime is a regional issue. Criminals don’t recognize city-county borders. We have to approach crime as a regional problem.”
That means drawing on contributions from prosecutors and judges, probation and parole officers and cooperation from citizens to help prevent crime, Dotson said.
City police released data Monday saying major crimes fell 5.4 percent overall last year compared with 2012. Crime statistics from St. Louis County police were not available Monday.