Missouri wants to strip St. Louis’ control of its own police, just like Kansas City
Fresh from their statewide victory over Kansas Citians in November, Republicans in the Missouri legislature are trying to force their dictatorial views on the people of St. Louis.
At least four bills prefiled in the Missouri House call for removing oversight of the St. Louis Police Department from city officials and returning the responsibility to a “board of police commissioners.”
Details are sketchy, and existing laws are muddy. It appears the St. Louis police board would mirror the one in Kansas City: Four members appointed by the governor, with the mayor or a designee in the fifth spot. Starting in 2024, the board would control the operation of the department.
The arrogance is stunning. Legislators must discard this blatant attempt to discard the will of Missouri voters, and St. Louisans, to re-establish plantation-like state supervision of the police.
You’ll remember: Ten years ago, Missouri’s voters overwhelmingly gave St. Louis permission to return to local police control after 150 years of state supervision. The vote, known as Proposition A, was set up by a citizen petition bankrolled by millionaire political activist Rex Sinquefield.
(Kansas City might have been part of Proposition A. Had it joined in the petition, it might have local police control today. Quietly, and sadly, the city’s leadership backed away from the vote.)
In 2013, St. Louis began running its police department like every other city in America, save Kansas City. The department’s successes and failures were assignable to elected politicians, who are responsible to the people.
That’s how real democracy works.
Sponsors claim the state must regain control of the department because violent crime remains an issue in St. Louis. “All I care about is figuring out how we can make things safer,” state Rep. Ron Copeland of Salem told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Salem is located 125 miles southwest of St. Louis.
Would state control of St. Louis police make the city safer? Have legislators even looked at Kansas City? The murder rate is outrageously high, despite — or perhaps because of — a state-appointed board that oversees the department.
The same state-appointed board (with two members serving expired terms) has bungled the search for a new police chief, angering the community and making policing more difficult.
That sorry record has apparently made no impact on state lawmakers.
While attempts to reinstall state police control in St. Louis have died in previous years, this year could be different. In November, Missouri’s voters decided to impose new police spending requirements on Kansas Citians, emboldening the authoritarians in Jefferson City.
Incoming House Speaker Rep. Dean Plocher has indicated the idea will get a hearing in 2023, and a possible vote. Ideas that might actually reduce violent crime — allowing local gun restrictions, for example — will likely get no hearing at all.
None of the legislators proposing state control in St. Louis actually lives in St. Louis. That cannot be surprising — the legislators who endorsed dictatorial control over Kansas City’s budget don’t live in Kansas City, either. It’s a habit in the state capital.
It’s more than strange that lawmakers who howl whenever the federal government tells the states to do something are happy to tell cities how they should conduct their business. The hypocrisy is appalling.
And it must be resisted, loudly and relentlessly. We urge Kansas City legislators to join with St. Louis interests to resist this usurpation. If St. Louis is required to return to state police control, despite the clear voice of Missouri voters, chances for any real oversight of the KCPD will disappear for generations.
That can’t be what Kansas Citians want, or real democracy demands.
