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St. Louis officials hope to avoid escalation over police budget after commission ignores subpoena 57%
By Kavahn Mansouri63%
5/29/2026, 6:34:39 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 26 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Appeal to Emotion, and Indoctrination, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 44.4% saturation with 285 hits. Analysis detected 1,460 faulty-reasoning hits from 642 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 54.1% and a BS Rank of 57% (7,293 of 16,813 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 56.60% of the article peer group.
The head of the St.
Louis Board of Aldermen's budget committee said Friday he hopes the commission that oversees the city’s state-run police force will change course after a week of ignored subpoenas and rising tension over a budget officials say could devastate city services.
On Wednesday, members of the Board of Police Commissioners defied a subpoena that required members to appear at a budget meeting, instead dropping off binders of information on its budget proposal that administration officials say would bankrupt the city.
The submitted police budget calls for more than $250 million from the city budget, while Mayor Cara Spencer and the board have budgeted roughly $200 million.
Spencer has said repeatedly that a $250 million police budget would trigger mass layoffs of the city's employees and put extreme pressure on its finances.
The snub was the latest in a series of escalations between city officials and the police commission.
The budget process typically sees representatives of each department appearing before the committee to explain its budget, but members of the police board have ducked the meeting twice.
The second snub came after the budget committee voted to subpoena board members to appear.
“Every department, from buildings to streets to [the] health department, has been in front of the budget committee to explain their budget, and the police decided not to,” said Ward 14 Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, who chairs the budget committee.
“It’s unfortunate they're not trying to be collaborative and work in collaboration with city leaders.”
City rules allow the aldermen to issue warrants for the members of the police board, but after Friday’s meeting of the full Board of Aldermen, Aldridge said issuing warrants isn’t their first choice.
“I'm not sure if we want to escalate,” Aldridge said.
“I think I think the budget committee has shown that we're kind of the parents in the room, and they're being the little kids.”
He said that while tensions are high, the budget committee is still hoping for cooler heads to prevail and for more transparency from police.
“I think they [have] shown very clearly by not showing up they have not gained respect and trust amongst residents, but only, I would say, in my opinion, continue to lose the trust,” Aldridge said.
“It's unfortunate.”
Aldridge called the commission a “rogue” board.
“I want to be very clear, it's not the men and women in blue, the people that are walking beat and doing the work,” Aldridge said.
“You have a board of commissioners who don't know city policy, they don't know the city budget, and they continue to demand more and more money.”
Board of Aldermen Vice President Shane Cohn, acting president of the board while President Megan Green takes maternity leave, said he was "extremely disappointed” by the police board’s recent actions.
“I understand that there's litigation flying around from both parties, but when it comes down to the city's budget, which includes the police department's budget, you know, it's important for us to have transparency, cooperation, collaboration,” Cohn said.
The police board filed suit against the City of St.
Louis in early May, asking a judge to force it to spend an additional $68 million on the department, a move Spencer called an attempt to “squeeze the city dry of every last penny.”
Cohn didn’t delve further into the possible actions the Board of Aldermen may take in the coming days and weeks.
“I think we need to examine what next steps are with respect to that,” Cohn said.
“I think any public board that has a fiduciary responsibility to the citizens should be present, active, and engaged in having those conversations and being transparent with where public money is being spent.”
The next meeting of the budget committee is scheduled for Wednesday.
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