The St. Louis County prosecuting attorney has cleared a backlog of 6,000 cases that were waiting for charging decisions.
“We had people volunteer to come in all day on Saturdays, all day on Sunday,” Melissa Price Smith told members of the County Council on Monday. “We did a couple of weekends where I just sent out an email saying, ‘We need help,’ and it was heartwarming how many people said, ‘I’ll be there.’”
None of the pending cases were for violent crimes such as homicide or assault, Price Smith said. Some had to be dropped because the delay had pushed them past the statute of limitations. Prosecutors decided there was not enough evidence to support some others.
Price Smith said new technology should help prevent the number of cases waiting for a charging decision from ever reaching that size again.
