The union representing St. Louis police officers has begun running a campaign designed to scare city voters — suggesting in media interviews and paid Facebook ads that the city faces a "dire" staffing shortage.
The only problem? It's just not true.
FBI statistics for the most recent year available, 2015, show that the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department actually has more employees per capita than its counterparts in all but two other large cities in the entire U.S. Only Washington, D.C., and New York City have a higher ratio of police employees to city residents.
And even if you disregard the civilian personnel who staff the department, looking solely at sworn officers, St. Louis is still among the nation's most heavily policed cities.…