The St. Louis Police Department is partnering with the University of Missouri-St. Louis in a new crime-fighting initiative.
The partnership announced Wednesday is aimed at reducing crime in part by using criminologists from the university to help implement and evaluate crime reduction initiatives. In fact, an UMSL graduate student will work 20 hours per week at the police department.
The partnership comes as crime is on the decline in St. Louis. Police Chief Dan Isom told the Board of Police Commissioners Wednesday that overall crime is expected to drop about 5 percent in 2011 compared to 2010, and crime in the city has declined 40 percent over the past five years.
But Isom and Mayor Francis Slay say the partnership will seek to reduce crime even further.