ST. LOUIS — Three days after neighbors in St. Louis Hills voted to pay more taxes to bring on more manpower to keep their community safe, other neighborhoods are also eyeing the idea. This is as city police continue to battle shortages.
Neighbors in The Hill are in the process of doing research to figure out if it's the best option for them. They say it's time to do something.
"When you live in the hill, it feels like you live on vacation … the corner stores, the restaurants, the people walking around,” said Jim Barnthouse, who heads The Hill 2000 neighborhood association.
He loves living in what he calls one of the safest communities in St. Louis but that doesn't mean it's immune to crime.
"Every single neighborhood association meeting we have, it is the number one topic. People are like 'Hey my car got broken into. What are we going to do about it,'" he said.
One option is one some other sections of the city have already implemented -- paying higher taxes for private security.
"Within the last handful of years it seems like we have had an uptick in issues on The Hill … what we are doing now is reaching out to local security firms. We have priced services from 3 to 4 different firms in the area,” said neighbor Matt Devoti.
Last summer, Holly Hills took that route. Neighbors agreed to pay some $200 to put off-duty police officers on their streets. Just this week, St. Louis Hills approved a tax hike with the same goal of making their community safer.
"I know from working with our police liaison that city police are working very hard. They are extremely responsive. Unfortunately, we hear this a lot, they're stretched and they're stretched thin … it just doesn’t seem that there are enough officers to deal with things in the district or in the area,” Devoti added.
An officer who works for city police and for a private security firm told 5 On Your Side he picks up about 25 extra hours a week after working his full-time job with SLMPD.
“The city will work with the St. Louis Hills Special Business District (SBD) just as we work with the more than 100 fellow Local Taxing Districts across St. Louis,” city spokesman, Nick Desideri, said in an email.