“AS MAYOR, TISHAURA JONES WOULD ‘RE-ENVISION’ PUBLIC SAFETY”

Sarah Fenske | St. Louis Public Radio

“St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones doesn’t want to abolish the police. But she might want to cut the department’s overtime budget.

The treasurer is one of four candidates running for mayor in the city’s March 2 primary. The darling of local progressives, she nearly bested then-Alderwoman Lyda Krewson in the 2017 mayoral primary, coming just 879 votes short.

But asked on Tuesday’s St. Louis on the Air if she believes in defunding the police, Jones said she prefers the phrase “reenvision or reimagine public safety,” saying that includes not just police but the fire department.

She explained that she would start with a question: “Do you think that the current system is working?”

“And most people will say no, that the current system is not working, and you know, calls to ‘defund the police’ echo through every American city following the tragic deaths of Brianna Taylor and George Floyd and many others,” she continued. “And to me, defunding the police is about restructuring our public safety budget, and putting the public back in public safety and investing in the things that actually keep us safe. It's not abolishing the police.””