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Source: FBI
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, violent crime rose from about 450 per 100,000 people in 2012 to 490 per 100,000 people in 2022. We can argue that 2020 is an outlier due to COVID-19 and its associated public health issues, one of which is mental health exacerbated by the long Covid lockdown. Yet, as the graph above demonstrates, the numbers are still high at 490 per 100,000 people in the most recent year that data was collected.
The Missouri Chamber Foundation’s 2030 Strategic Plan highlighted the need to better use limited state and local resources by focusing on high-risk individuals and high-crime geographic areas. This is evident in the Safer Missouri, Stronger Missouri report released by Economic Leadership LLC on behalf of the Missouri Chamber.
While acknowledging competing interests struggling for lawmakers’ attention, keeping Missouri's crime rate in check should be a top priority for local and state policymakers, and there must be a concerted effort on the part of the leaders to ensure many of these commonsense recommendations are enacted into law and implemented as soon as it is practicable to do so. Some of the recommendations highlighted by the Missouri Chamber report are:
- Deploy evidence-based and hot-spot approaches to crime reduction.
- Increase and protect tools to support policing.
- Increase public safety staffing.
- Address substance misuse and mental health.
- Reduce recidivism among those on probation or parole.
- Improve training and employment opportunities for incarcerated individuals.
- Improve public perception of law enforcement.
- Increase prosecutorial consistency and transparency.
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