Civil rights law firm sues to block Missouri from taking over St. Louis police
A St. Louis civil rights law firm filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the state takeover of the St. Louis police as unconstitutional.
ArchCity Defenders filed the lawsuit in Cole County circuit court on behalf of two St. Louis city residents, Jamala Rogers and Mike Milton. The state and Attorney General Andrew Bailey are the defendants.
The lawsuit seeks to overturn provisions of a bill Gov. Mike Kehoe signed into law in March, which put the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department under a state board instead of local control. The law, reversing a statewide vote from 2012 that put the board under local control, was needed, supporters said, to address high crime rates.
With Kehoe's signature, St. Louis joined Kansas City as the only major metropolitan police force in the country under control of a state board rather than local officials.
The plaintiffs argue the law violates two parts of the state constitution: the prohibition on unfunded state mandates and on special laws targeting a particular locality.
The law will 'subject the city to an unfunded mandate that diverts resources away from needed programs to prevent crime, overturns the democratic vote of the people with no rational basis to believe it will help increase public safety,' the lawsuit states, 'and will derail any progress that has been made in reducing the level of violence and improving law enforcement community relations.'
The bill established a floor for the police budget in St. Louis, setting a minimum portion of general revenue funds that must be used for police each year, rising to 25% in 2028.
Previously, there was no minimum funding requirement for the St. Louis city police, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit argues the city will need to either reallocate money from other programs and services or raise taxes.
The two St. Louis city residents named as plaintiffs are activists who have advocated for policies to reduce poverty, prevent violence and increase community trust in law enforcement, according to the lawsuit.
Those plaintiffs believe that the 'policies they are advocating for and the programs they implement will increase public safety,' the lawsuit states, but that 'funding and support for those policies are now in jeopardy because of the state takeover law.'
The city charter also requires pay parity between police officers and firefighters and emergency medical personnel, meaning that if the state board increases police officers' salaries, the city will be under the increased strain of matching those salaries.
'There will be even less funds available for the city to implement holistic, poverty-reducing programs that have a proven effect on increasing public safety in the region,' the lawsuit states.
Under the state's Hancock Amendment, the state is forbidden from imposing unfunded mandates on local governments.
The second component of the lawsuit argues the law is unconstitutional because it violates the prohibition against the legislature enacting certain local or special laws. It argues the law regulates the affairs of St. Louis when a general state law could be made applicable to it.
'The state has no rational basis for imposing minimum police department funding requirements only on the city of St. Louis and excluding other municipalities from those requirements,' the lawsuit states.
The plaintiffs ask the court to declare the state takeover provisions invalid under the constitution, and sever them from the rest of the wide-ranging crime bill in which they were passed.
The bill restored the governing system that controlled the police department from 1861 until the 2012 vote.
The bill was passed despite the 2012 vote, and 'despite the City's robust funding of the police department at the expense of other needs, and despite the falling crime rate in the city of St. Louis,' the lawsuit states. The plaintiffs argue that the city has struggled to fund services like affordable housing and violence prevention services, which could reduce crime, while providing 'steady funding' for the police department.
The Board of Police Commissioners has six members — the mayor of St. Louis and five people appointed by the governor and subject to state Senate confirmation.
The bill passed on party-line votes in the House and Senate earlier this year, with Democrats opposed.
State takeover of St. Louis police clears legislature, heads to Missouri governor
Opponents argued it was racist because Black Democrats held the major offices in St. Louis at the time of passage and is unneeded because crime is decreasing. Senate Democrats filibustered the bill, winning additions of provisions banning the shackling of pregnant prisoners, establishing a fund for exonerated prisoners to receive restitution from the state and limiting what jails and prisons can charge inmates for phone calls.
Critics point to statistics showing a drop in violent crime in St. Louis under local leadership. They say Kansas City has fared no better despite being under state control since the 1930s.
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