St. Louis police force hits all-time low following 'Defund Police' movement: 'It's out of control'

The city of St. Louis is facing police shortages, including a record number of vacancies, as critics blame left-wing politicians who leaned into the "defund police" movement.

Ann Dorn, the widow of retired Police Capt. David Dorn, and retired St. Louis homicide detective Roger Murphy joined "Fox & Friends" Wednesday to discuss how the "Defund the Police" movement and rhetoric from politicians has impacted the city. 

Dorn's husband was shot dead in June 2020 while protecting a friend's business from looters, as the protests over the death of George Floyd spiraled out of control in major cities. 

"Nobody wants to come down in the city and be a policeman anymore. It's out of control. We were never like that … until the last five, ten years," said Murphy.

Dorn said the Defund the Police movement has had a negative impact on the morale of the city, and as a result they are "losing officers left and right." 

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Democratic St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones speaks at her victory party, Tuesday, April 6, 2021. (Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP, File)

"When [Rep.] Cori Bush and [Mayor] Tishaura Jones called for defunding of the police. What does that make it sound like? … The citizens are like, well, what does that mean?" said Dorn, blasting local officials for putting social workers on the streets and reducing the visibility of officers in the community. 

"The citizens are suffering. They're not seeing the police. They want to see the police out there," Dorn told host Lawrence Jones, who reported live from St. Louis.  

Mayor Tishaura Jones recently touted "significant progress" on reducing crime since taking office in 2021.

"With targeted investments in crime prevention, intervention, and enforcement, St. Louis experienced a 21 percent reduction in homicides (158 in 2023 compared to 200 in 2022), the lowest murder rate in a decade and one of the biggest year-over-year reductions in violent crime in 90 years," read the statement from Jones' office.

David Dorn, a retired police captain, was protecting a friend's pawn shop Monday night when he was shot and killed by looters. (Missouri Department of Public Safety)

The killer of 77-year-old David Dorn was found guilty in 2022 and sentenced to life in prison. Dorn had served 38 years on the St. Louis police force before working six years as police chief in Moline Acres, retiring in 2014.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, like many law enforcement agencies across the country, has faced significant departures that it's struggled to replace. The department is budgeted for 1,224 officers, but has over 300 vacancies, according to a report in December. 

"I’ve never heard of anything that low," the business manager for the St. Louis Police Officers Association, Joe Steiger, told the Post-Dispatch. 

"When I started back in 1995, there were closer to 1,600 officers, and now they’re down under 1,000. That’s just crazy."

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Earlier on the show, GOP State Sen. Nick Schroer called for the state of Missouri to take control of the city's police force.

"You've got 326 vacancies, 500-plus officers have left in just the past couple of years. The plague is spreading into the surrounding communities, and it's impacting the state as a whole," he said

Fox News' Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.

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