ISP director highlights collaborative effort to bring down homicide rate in East St. Louis
Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly is pictured at a news conference at the Illinois Emergency Management Agency building in Springfield in January. Capitol News Illinois File Photo
East St. Louis, Illinois has long had a disproportionately high murder rate. As recently as 2019, 36 people were murdered in the city. That may not sound like the hundreds of people who are killed every year in major cities like Chicago, but East St. Louis is a town of 18,500 people — making the murder rate orders of magnitude greater than the statewide figure.
A few years ago, the Illinois State Police partnered with local organizations in an effort to change that trajectory. After four years, homicides are down — from 37 to 20 last year. Shootings have been cut in half as well.The head of the Illinois State Police joins today's program to discuss the initiative.
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Brendan Kelly
Director, Illinois State Police