Dotson said the recidivism rate for gun crime arrests is as high as 70 percent.

“(Murder is) the most violent and tragic of all crimes, but it impacts the smallest number of people and it’s almost always personal,” he said. “And, of all crimes, it’s the most difficult crime to prevent. And when we do see a precursor, such as crimes involving people carrying guns illegally, we don’t get the outcome in the court, so how do we expect not to see them reoffend time and again?”

He said he’s also asking his officers to work overtime to compensate for the 100 or so officers that the department is short.

“I am worried that we are working our officers so hard, but the reality is, in a city that has violence and crime and that needs to grow its police department, it has become necessary to do those things,” he said.

Six of the 31 homicides in the county fall within St. Louis County police jurisdiction. The others are in municipalities with their own police services. In 2015, county police had investigated 19 at this time last year. Aggravated assaults with firearms are up by 9.4 percent and crime overall is down about 2 percent within the county police department’s jurisdiction, according to Police Chief Jon Belmar.