St. Louis and city official sue Missouri over the state's control of
local police
[April 15, 2025]
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The city of St. Louis and the leader of
its city council filed a federal lawsuit Monday against a new Missouri
law putting a state-appointed board back in control of the local police
department, putting St. Louis among a handful of major U.S. cities that
don't fully oversee law enforcement.
The president of the city's Board of Aldermen, Megan Green, argues in
the lawsuit that the new law violates her rights to free expression,
freedom of assembly and to petition state government, all guaranteed by
the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The city says the law
violates a provision of the Missouri Constitution that prohibits
unfunded mandates from the state.
The law, approved by the GOP-controlled Legislature and signed by Gov.
Mike Kehoe last month, gives the governor the power to appoint four city
residents as voting members of a new board to manage the St. Louis
Metropolitan Police Department to serve along with the city's elected
mayor, currently Democrat Tishaura Jones. The police department of
Kansas City, Missouri, is overseen by such a board.
Some critics suggested that Republican lawmakers wanted to wrest control
of the police away from Jones, a Black woman, but Kehoe has said
legislators were “prioritizing public safety.”
The lawsuit alleges that the new law violates Green’s rights through
vague and overly broad provisions that prohibit city officials from
taking any action to “impede, obstruct or interfere” with the state
board, subjecting them to fines and removal from office. The new law
also requires St. Louis to increase its spending on the police
department each year through 2028.
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Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is promising to defend the
law.
“Rather than waste taxpayer funds in an attempt to defund the
police, we would encourage city leaders to focus their efforts on
building a safer St. Louis,” James Lawson, a deputy chief of staff
for Bailey, said in an email to The Associated Press.
St. Louis first lost full control over its police department during
the Civil War in 1861, when Missouri was sharply divided between
Union and Confederate supporters. St. Louis and Kansas City had
larger Black populations than other parts of the state and were
centers of Union support. A pro-Confederate government persuaded the
Legislature to give the state control of the local police.
That control lasted until a statewide vote in 2012 decisively
approved an amendment to the state constitution to allow St. Louis
to take control of the police department. However, Republicans
argued this year that it was necessary to return control to the
state to restore order in the city following years of population
loss, a rise in homicides, and power struggles between city leaders
and GOP state officials.
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