From a year ago ...
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/morale-of-st-louis-officers-being-drained-in-challenging-time-for-police-chief-says/article_d5978d68-04c3-564c-81ce-19f96fe7bfcb.htmlST. LOUIS — A troubling surge in homicides coupled with the coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest has led to one of the most challenging times in decades for St. Louis police as officer morale is “being drained,” police Chief John Hayden said Tuesday.
Officers often are rushing from one homicide scene to the next or from one protest to another, he said. “It’s just extremely demanding,” he said. “More demanding than I’ve seen as a St. Louis police officer in 33½ years.”
“I have never been to a community meeting in my career where citizens asked for less police presence,” he said. “The people who live in those communities want more police, and if 90% of my budget is salaries and benefits I don’t know how that phrase (defund) fits into the St. Louis challenge.”
https://www.kmov.com/news/rate-of-officers-leaving-st-louis-police-department-significantly-increasing/article_128b3de2-eb46-11eb-919a-f3ff5f3c733f.html"In 2019, there were 95 commissioned officers that left the department, for whatever reason. In 2020, the number was 92. But in 2021, there were 92 officers that had left by July 19. If the departures continue at the current rate, the police department could lose 168 officers by the end of the year. That would be an 83% increase over the previous year.
"It's hard to keep the officers that we have happy with the current situation and I think morale is low, morale is low," said President of the Ethical Society of Police Sgt. Donny Walton."
If morale is low, people start looking for work elsewhere. They don't necessaily wait for the city council to make a July 2021 move to erode morale further. When morale is low, job performance suffers, and employee turnover is detrimental to running any business.