Updated at 4:15 p.m. with comments from Krewson
St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson on Monday lifted a nighttime curfew in the city.
“This morning, after a weekend of nonviolent protests, of people expressing themselves, expressing their anger, expressing how difficult of a situation we are in in this country, I issued a lift of the curfew,” Krewson said Monday in a Facebook Live video. “I’m pretty confident that the people of St. Louis will continue to express themselves in a nonviolent way. None of us want to go back to a curfew.”
With few exceptions, city residents had been required to be in their homes from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. since June 2. The restrictions followed a night of violence and looting that left four police officers shot and a retired officer dead.
Prosecutors in St. Louis have charged two people in connection with the murder of the retired officer, David Dorn. Six people have been charged with various crimes related to the looting.
“I don’t think it’s possible to measure what would have happened had you not had it in place,” Krewson said of the curfew. “But I think having the curfew did help to be able to put resources toward solving some of those crimes.”
Also on Monday, Krewson pledged a complete review of the St. Louis police department’s use of force policy, a call to action from the Obama Foundation. But she ruled out making any significant cuts to the police department’s budget.
“We’re spending money on police because we fundamentally believe they are part of public safety,” Krewson said. “You don’t take something that you want incremental change in, and improvements in, and starve them.”
Next year’s budget for the city has not been finalized, and the Board of Aldermen could reduce funding for the police department and direct it toward social services. But doing so would require 20 votes in order to overcome a likely veto from Krewson, and it’s not clear if there is enough support.
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