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ST. LOUIS — The city’s top cop is asking residents to help recruit officers and said the department is offering existing employees $500 if they refer candidates who graduate from the police academy.

in a monthly public memo on Tuesday that city leaders have made progress addressing severe staffing shortages by increasing pay and improving benefits.

“No matter what neighborhood in St. Louis you call home, we need your help to recruit future police officers,� the chief wrote. “It might be a neighbor, a friend or a family member — I am willing to bet that each of you knows someone who might be interested in a career with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.�

The latest effort comes as the department has for years struggled to hire new officers and keep cops on board. It continued to lose officers this fall: In the past five weeks, the number of commissioned employees in the department decreased by 11.

A decade ago, when the city took control of the department after 152 years of state control, the agency employed 1,301 officers. Now the department is budgeted for about 1,275 officers but employed 929 commissioned employees, excluding trainees, as of Monday.

Tracy did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.

The Post-Dispatch interviewed 16 former city cops this summer about why they left the department. Their reasons varied, but themes that came up repeatedly were conflicts with former Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner’s office, staffing shortages and politics. The city’s low pay relative to other departments in the region was also mentioned, but most officers said that wasn’t the main factor in their departure.

St. Louis isn’t alone in its police staffing woes. Departments across the country have struggled to fill vacancies since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the The nonprofit surveyed almost 200 police departments and found that hiring was down 5% in 2020, while resignations increased by 18% and retirements increased by 45% from the previous year.

Tracy also wrote in his memo that he was excited to share a recent promotional video, which received criticism from some officers for featuring white, male police leaders. The chief noted on Tuesday the video underscores the importance of technology in investigations and highlights the “wide range of proven crime strategies� the department uses.

The project was funded by the St. Louis Police Foundation, which also pays about a third of the chief’s salary, and was produced in collaboration with the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Tracy said the video was shown at the IACP’s conference recently, reaching more than 33,000 law enforcement executives representing 18,000 police departments in 173 countries.