CLAYTON, Mo. – St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Melissa Price Smith says her office has reduced the county’s backlog of cases by 45% in her first 100 days in office. That’s just one accomplishment she shared at a news conference Tuesday in Clayton.

“I hope St Louis County is safer since I came to office. I will assure you, we as a team have been working every single day to make that happen, and we are committed to working every single day moving forward to make St Louis County safer,” Price Smith said.

An effort she says began her first day in office when she reinstated the Violent Crime Unit, which has since issued 138 violent crime cases. The office also added a homicide unit, led by veteran prosecuting attorney Mike Riley.

“We will be looking at cases that present high-risk individuals who commit violent crimes and murders,” he said. “We will be looking for the indicators of people who are potential shooters, killers, and persons engaged in active violence.”

Price Smith hired former federal prosecutor Carrie Costantin as the county’s chief trial attorney. She’s helping the office’s attorney game plan for the courtroom.

“We’re doing this through case-by-case mentoring, literally sitting down with attorneys as they’re ready for trial and working through their cases to see what can be done to prepare their cases better for trial and so that they can be effective, more effective in court,” Costantin said.

A little more than four months in, Price Smith says her team has succeeded in chipping away at the county’s case backlog.

“When I arrived in January of 2025, we had a backlog of about 6,000 cases that had not been reviewed. In these 100 days, we have reduced that backlog by about 45%,” she said. “It is down from 6,000 to 3,400, and that is with the work of every person in this office. By mid-to-late summer, we plan to be totally caught up on that backlog.”

Price Smith announced a diversion program for the county’s 45,000 pending traffic tickets, beginning June 1.

“These individuals who have these old tickets get to do a driver appropriate class and avoid any type of conviction,” she said.

The prosecuting attorney says community engagement has and will continue to be a focus for her office.

“We want victims to know that their voice is safe with us. Every time a victim discloses, they are no longer any one’s victim disclosure leads to healing, and the more we are out in the community, we want to gain the trust of victims to know we can help them through this judicial process,” Price Smith said.

Price Smith says they’ve retained every prosecutor in the office since taking over and that they’re in the process of hiring two new attorneys. They’ve also deactivated 45 missing cell phones and tablets once used by the office, a move that will save county taxpayers approximately $18,000 a year.