ST. LOUIS – City police said last month they were counting on $18 million in federal stimulus money to avoid cutting the force by 105 officers.

The St. Louis County police asked for more than $5 million to increase its force by about 4 percent, or 29 officers.

But requests from 7,700 U.S. police departments totaled $8.3 billion, seeking funding for nearly 40,000 officers. The Washington-based COPS program says it is reviewing applications and will award the money by Sept. 30.

Last year, the city of St. Louis provided funding for 1,400 officers. New cuts would reduce the force to 1,295 sworn positions, the Police Board announced last month. That would be about the lowest staffing level in a century, although the city still has about four officers for every 1,000 city residents, one of the highest ratios in the nation.

A department spokeswoman said Friday that any cuts to the uniformed force would be made through attrition. Dropping to a level of 1,295 officers would "devastate us," said Sgt. Gary Wiegert, president of the St. Louis Police Officers' Association. "I don't know if we could function unless we changed how we do business."

Having fewer officers would mean fewer officers for special details, he said.

Wiegert said the reduced manpower puts extra stress on a force at times when officers are diverted to work at sporting events, parades and festivals. He suggested the department charge for providing officers for security at those events. "It's the Fourth of July parade, it's the All-Star Game; that's what tears you up," he said.

Richard Rosenfeld, a criminologist with the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said many cities counting on stimulus funds will face tough decisions.

"The choices are whether to maintain police budgets by raising revenue or cutting other city services and how they deploy officers they do have on hand, regardless of whether they receive funding for additional officers," he said.

If he were chief, Rosenfeld said, "My first priority would be to ensure that every available officer is on the street" and "deploying officers to those places where crime rates are highest and where they've been increasing."

A spokesman for the St. Louis County police, Officer Rick Eckhard, said his department applied for 18 officers to patrol unincorporated areas and 11 for municipalities that contract with the department — including Fenton, Wildwood and Black Jack. But he said the county does not believe it will get funding for all 29.