By BRENT MARTINSt. Joseph PostA St. Joseph city councilmember says the city has made great
strides in reducing crime, but must address the core issues of crime if it is
to truly resolve the problem.Councilmember Brian Myers says two root causes drive crime in
St. Joseph.“In a community such as ours, and I’ve been saying this
non-stop since I campaigned, we have a problem with drug addiction in our
community, we have a severe problem with mental health issues in our community,”
Myers tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “And, until we learn to take
those two things seriously, we’re not going to be able to make dramatic
improvements in our crime rate.”Myers sees those two causes as the primary drivers of crime in
St. Joseph.“If we don’t figure out a way to address the poor mental
health crisis we have in our community and if we don’t address the high level
of drug addiction in our community, we’re not going to be happy with the
results of crime,” according to Myers.Myers says mental illness and drug addiction don’t just drive
crime in the city, but also play a major role in homelessness.“People are homeless for different reasons, but a lot of our
homeless people are suffering from mental illness, a lot of them suffer from
drug and alcohol addiction,” Myers says.And Myers asserts it makes fiscal sense to treat the
underlying problems.“It is more cost-effective for us statistically to take care
of these individuals in whatever way we need to take care of them than it is to
leave them on the street where they are a drain on our resources,” Myers says. “Petty
theft, property crimes, in and out of our emergency rooms, those drive up costs
for citizens like you and me far more than it does to make sure that these
people get the proper treatment.”St. Joseph could take major strides to resolve the problem,
according to Myers, by establishing in-patient mental health treatment and an
alcohol and drug detox center.

Councilmember: St. Joseph must address core causes of crime