A bill to restore state control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is being heard by the Senate Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety Committee. The state previously oversaw the department for over 150 years until local authority was reinstated a decade ago.
From the Desk of State Sen. Karla May, District 4
On Jan. 17, the Senate Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety Committee heard Senate Bill 808, an attempt to restore state control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. The state oversaw the department for more than 150 years until Missouri voters reinstated local authority more than a decade ago.
The original state takeover of the St. Louis police department resulted from Gov. Claiborne Fox Jackson’s efforts to take Missouri out of the Union and join the Confederacy after the outbreak of the Civil War. At Jackson’s behest, the legislature enacted legislation in late March 1861 stripping the pro-Union St. Louis city government of authority over its police force and giving it to a state-run police board to prevent officers from being used against Confederate sympathizers.
A state-run Board of Police Commissioners had governed the St. Louis department for more than 150 years, and under SB 808 a similar state-run board would oversee the department. Although city taxpayers would continue to be responsible for funding the department, they would have no say through their local elected representatives in how it operates. Senate Bill 808 also would impose fines of $1,000 per occurrence on city officials who resist state authority and ban them from holding elected office in the future.
Supporters of state control say it would stem violent crime, and opponents of the bill noted violent crime increased throughout Missouri after members of the majority party voted to enact laws weakening the state’s gun laws. Especially given the origins of the original state takeover of the St. Louis police, the current effort is also drawing criticism since the largely white legislative majority is seeking to take control of a key municipal function in a city with a Black mayor and population that is nearly half Black.
