The Missouri House gave initial approval Tuesday to legislation that would place control of the St. Louis police department under a gubernatorial-appointed board.
The Republican-led chamber advanced the bill on a voice vote. It needs another vote to pass the chamber.
The House debated the legislation for over an hour. Support for the legislation split along party lines with most of the backing coming from Republicans.
“This robust bill will create a foundation for a safer Missouri and for all these very good reasons, I ask you to highly consider supporting this bill, to support the police and make Missouri safe again,” said bill sponsor Rep. Brad Christ, R-St. Louis County.
Through the legislation, a five-person board would assume control of the police department in August.
The board would consist of the mayor and four commissioners. All four commissioners must have lived in St. Louis for at least three years. Other than the mayor, none of the commissioners would be allowed to hold public office.
There are no other requirements to be a commissioner.
One of the four appointments is at the sole discretion of the governor.
The mayor’s office, the St. Louis Police Officers Association and the Ethical Society of Police would bring forward recommendations for the other three commissioners.
However, the governor can choose to forgo any of those recommendations and select whoever they want to serve on the commission if they live in St. Louis.
Rep. Ray Reed, D-Brentwood, spoke against the legislation.
“It's incredibly frustrating, Mr. Speaker, to constantly feel like the hammer is being brought down on you, and that's what I think this bill will do for people who look like me in the city of St. Louis,” Reed said.
The St. Louis Police Department announced in January that overall crime in St. Louis was down 15% since 2023. Additionally, the department said St. Louis’ 150 homicides in 2024 is the lowest since 2013.
Republicans, including Christ, have expressed doubt over those numbers.
In a Senate committee hearing on similar legislation in January, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones stood by the police department’s statistics and said they are audited each year.
While Jones and Police Chief Robert Tracy have testified against the legislation, both unions representing St. Louis police officers have testified for it.
Rep. Steve Butz, D-St. Louis, said he believes the statistics from the department. However, he said there are other benefits a board could provide.
“Do I think that this board of police commissioners is going to dramatically reduce crime? I do not, but [for] the morale and a better management of the department, I do,” Butz said.
The St. Louis department has been under local control since 2013, after Missouri voters approved a ballot measure in 2012. It marked the first time in over 150 years that the mayor’s office had authority over the department.
Currently, only Kansas City’s police department is under state control.
Rep. LaKeySha Bosley, D-St. Louis, offered an amendment that would have placed the question of who controls the department again to a vote of Missourians.
“This would ensure that we go back to that and putting forth the vote to the people of a statewide vote of ensuring that the Metropolitan Police Department of the city of St. Louis is not taken by a hostile takeover, because no means no, and everybody is saying no, and yet again, we are still trying to force this on the city of St. Louis,” Bosley said.
The amendment was defeated.
The wide-reaching legislation also includes a multitude of policies related to public safety. That includes language that broadens the definition of rioting.
The current definition of rioting in state statute is when a person “knowingly assembles with six or more other persons [and agrees with such persons to violate any of the criminal laws of this state or of the United States with force or violence], and thereafter, while still so assembled, [does violate any of said laws with force or violence.]”
The legislation changes that definition to where rioting consists of six or more people knowingly gathering and while still together “violates any of the criminal laws of this state or of the United States.”
Rep. Eric Woods, D-Kansas City, expressed concern over the new definition.
“If six 16-year-olds are gathering together to commit the crime of underage drinking. Can they be charged with rioting? Because it seems to me that they could, because they are six people assembled with the intent to violate a criminal law of the state,” Woods said.
Christ replied he didn’t interpret the bill that way.
If the bill is passed by the House, it must go to the Senate. The Senate’s version of similar legislation has yet to get initial approval on the floor.
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