A state takeover of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is potentially two votes away from passing the Missouri legislature.
Members of the state Senate debated for nearly 10 hours Wednesday and came to an agreement on a wide-ranging public safety bill that includes placing St. Louis police under an appointed board.
The Senate is slated to vote on the bill on Monday.
Sen. Nick Schroer, R-Defiance, who sponsored similar legislation, said placing control of the department under a board would improve safety for St. Louis residents.
“At its core, this legislation enacts a citizen board to manage the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, returning actual oversight of law enforcement to the people who live, work and raise families in our great city," Schroer said.
The composition of the board went through significant changes from the original House bill.
Originally, the board would have consisted of four resident commissioners to serve alongside the mayor of St. Louis. Those commissioners would be appointed by the governor.
Under the revised bill, the board would be the mayor, four resident commissioners and one nonvoting commissioner.
The commissioners must be residents of St. Louis for at least two years before their appointment. They also must be confirmed by the Senate.
Unlike in an earlier version of the bill, there is not a minimum number of officers required to be on the police force. That decision would be up to the board.
Speaking on Thursday, Schroer said having the commissioners now be subject to Senate approval means there will be more buy-in from senators on the issue.
“This is something we're putting on our shoulders to make sure that St. Louis is not going to further decline and will be able to compete with Nashville, Tennessee; Austin, Texas; bringing the big businesses here and letting us all feel safe when we go down to a Cardinals game, to a Battlehawks game, and so on and so forth,” Schroer said.
Senate Democrats filibustered the bill for nearly 10 hours Wednesday, finishing up around midnight.
Sen. Steven Roberts, D-St. Louis said as someone who represents part of the city, he cannot support the bill, despite the changes to it.
“I cannot vote in favor of a bill that allows the state to take power and accountability away from local elected leaders,” Roberts said.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police has been under control of the mayor’s office 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 in Missouri.
The St. Louis 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 fewest since 2013.
Some Republicans have expressed doubt over those numbers.
In a Senate committee hearing in January, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones stood by the police department’s statistics and said they are audited each year.
Jones and Police Chief Robert Tracy are opposed to state control and have traveled to Jefferson City to testify against it.
Speaking Thursday, Roberts criticized Jones, saying she did not communicate with him during discussions on the bill.
“More so than that, she's lost the support of both police unions, and even more importantly, has demonstrated by the election results on Tuesday, she has lost the trust of the citizens of St. Louis city,” Roberts said.
Jones came in second in Tuesday’s mayoral primary, earning 11,582 votes. 8th Ward Alderwoman Cara Spencer came in first with 23,785 votes. Both Jones and Spencer advanced to the general mayoral election in April.
In an emailed response, Jones’ office said Roberts was “blatantly lying” and pointed out Jones’ appearances before both the Senate and House committees during discussions on the legislation as well as extensive work with Sen. Karla May, D-St. Louis, on the issue.
“The Senator is using the mayor as a convenient political punching bag to distract from the fact that he has not been at the table and is unwilling to stand up for the City of St. Louis in any meaningful way. Good luck to him on whatever appointment he is currently seeking from Gov. Kehoe,” Conner Kerrigan, the mayor’s director of communications, said in a statement on Thursday.
Gov. Mike Kehoe, a St. Louis native, has pushed for state control of the department.
If the bill passes the Senate as expected, it then goes back to the House. If the House passes the bill as is, it then goes to Kehoe.
House Floor Leader Alex Riley, R-Springfield, said Thursday that the House intends to take up the bill next week.
Other public safety issues
One of the provisions no longer in the bill included a broader definition of rioting. That measure would have defined rioting as “six or more people knowingly gathering" and the group while still together “violates any of the criminal laws of this state or of the United States.”
Sen. Doug Beck, D-Affton, said it was important to him that that language was removed.
“I could see that being misused across party lines, whether it was in front of abortion clinic, whether it was somebody on a strike line. And I felt like there was no need for that,” Beck said.
The bill also includes measures added by the Senate.
Some of those provisions are related to corrections, including capping the cost of phone calls in correctional centers to 12 cents a minute for a domestic call.
It also caps calls at jails to 14 cents a minute.
Through the legislation, pregnant inmates who are in their third trimester or gave birth within the previous 48 hours would not be subjected to restraints in county or city jails.
There are some exceptions, including if the person is considered a flight risk, or to ensure the safety of the offender or others.
The legislation also includes language addressing wrongful convictions. The bill would allow anyone determined to be innocent as a result of DNA or another evidentiary method to receive restitution.
A person may receive $179 a day for each day of their post-conviction incarceration for the offense they were acquitted of. It caps at $65,000 per fiscal year.
The language was included in a large public safety bill passed a couple of years ago. However, then-Gov. Mike Parson vetoed the bill over that restitution language, saying he did not “believe every taxpayer across the state should be responsible for prosecutorial errors made at the local level.”
