Empower Missouri Denounces Signing of HB 495 

Yesterday, Governor Kehoe signed HB 495, a criminal justice omnibus bill with a variety of provisions. The primary provision of the bill puts the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department under state control. Empower Missouri denounces this change of control for the following reasons: 

• There is simply no logical explanation for pursuing this change of control at this time. Proponents of the change argued that crime is out of control in St. Louis and that is impacting other parts of the state. However, St. Louis saw a 21% drop of homicides, more than 40 cases, in 2023 from 2022. The same was true for other types of reported crime: Shootings were down 24% from 772 in 2022 to 552; felony thefts were down 39%; auto thefts were down 19%; and shootings involving juveniles were down 47%. This positive trend continued in 2024, with a 6% decrease in homicides and 15% reduction in crime overall. Why change management when the current approach is working? 
• Proponents of the change also say that this move takes politics out of policing.  We argue that this move doesn’t take politics out of policing– it just changes the politics. It shifts control of the police from a Democratically-controlled city to a Republican-controlled state.  The primary groups advocating for this change were law enforcement officers. 
• St. Louis will now join Kansas City as the only two cities in the country who don’t have control of their police departments. This is not a proven policy model to improve public safety. It’s a regression to Civil War-era policy. 
• The bill requires the city to increase the percentage of general revenue allocated to policing to 25% over the next three years.  Assuming that general revenue for the city remains generally stable, this will require the city to allocate an additional $13M to the police on an annual basis starting in 2028. This represents a 10% boost in police spending. Empower Missouri asserts that crime is often a symptom of poverty. In the City of St. Louis, over 20% of residents live below the federal poverty line. City leadership has demonstrated time and time again that they care deeply about decreasing poverty across the City, and we fear that effective programs that address poverty and decrease crime will have to be cut to allocate more dollars towards policing. 
• While it took a vote of the people to return the police department to local control in 2012, this bill gives control to the state without a vote of the people. This is remarkably undemocratic. 

We will be encouraging advocates to closely monitor the implementation of this change in control, starting with following the gubernatorial appointment process to choose the new commissioners who will oversee the police. 

While we find the underlying bill to be highly problematic, there are some positive provisions that were added to the bill throughout the hearing and amendment process.  These changes to Missouri law include:

• Phone call costs in jails will be capped at $.12/minute, an important change that will encourage incarcerated individuals to stay connected with their families and communities without plunging families into debt. 
• Protections for pregnant women incarcerated in jail, including a ban on restraints during labor, access to mental health care, adequate nutrition, and postpartum support.
• Positive reforms regarding the use of criminal informants in court cases, seeking to decrease false testimony provided for a reduced sentence or other benefit promised by the state in exchange for cooperation.
• Establishing the “Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls Task Force.”
• Repealing the Missouri Incarceration Reimbursement Act, a draconian measure on Missouri’s books that allowed the Missouri Attorney General to file lawsuits against incarcerated individuals to take their assets in order to cover the costs of their incarceration.
• Expanding and increasing restitution available to individuals who are incarcerated by the state after being wrongfully convicted for crimes. 

As previously announced, Empower Missouri advocates were also successful in working to remove extremely harmful anti-protest provisions that would have deeply infringed on Missourians’ first amendment rights. While we celebrate this victory and applaud the positive provisions enumerated above, we remain deeply concerned about the state takeover of SLMPD and will be closely monitoring implementation in the weeks and months ahead.

If you’d like to learn more about HB 495 and its impact on the St. Louis community, please join us next Thursday, April 3rd at 10:00-11:00 a.m., to hear more from Annie Rice, Senior Policy Counsel at Arch City Defenders, and Empower Missouri’s Criminal Justice Policy team. Register now to receive the link to join the Zoom call.