Additional Coverage:
- Missouri voters pass constitutional amendment requiring increased Kansas City police funding (newsbreak.com)
Missouri voters have decided to amend the state constitution to mandate that Kansas City allocate at least 25% of its budget to the police force, an increase from the previous requirement of 20%. This decision was made during Tuesday’s voting session.
The outcome reflects the ongoing dispute between Republican state leaders, who are wary of reductions in police funding, and the local leaders of Kansas City, where around 28% of the population is Black. Local officials argue for the autonomy to manage their city’s finances without state interference.
State Senator Tony Luetkemeyer, a Republican, emphasized his support for the police on the social media platform X, stating, “In Missouri, we defend our police. We don’t defund them.”
Despite claims to the contrary by state Republicans, Kansas City officials have consistently stated that they have no plans to disband the police department.
Unique among Missouri cities, and notably one of the largest in the U.S., Kansas City lacks local governance over its police, which is instead managed by a state-controlled board. This arrangement extends to budgetary decisions.
Gwen Grant, president of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, expressed her concerns about this arrangement. “We consider this to be a major local control issue,” Grant said. “We do not have control of our police department, but we are required to fund it.”
In response to the recent vote, Mayor Quinton Lucas has suggested the possibility of introducing a competing amendment that would advocate for local control across all communities.
The requirement for increased police funding was first approved by Missouri voters in 2022. However, following legal challenges related to fiscal estimations, the state Supreme Court voided the decision and demanded a revote this year. The initial ballot passed with a 63% majority, whereas this year’s approval narrowly passed with about 51%.
The battle for control over local police departments in Missouri dates back over a century. During the Civil War in 1861, pro-Confederacy Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson succeeded in having the state legislature pass a law granting the state control over St.
Louis’s police department. This law was only overturned in 2013 when local control was reinstated via another amendment.
Kansas City’s police department was first taken over by the state from 1874 until a 1932 state Supreme Court ruling deemed the control unconstitutional. However, control was reestablished in 1939 due to efforts by segregationist Governor Lloyd Crow Stark, mainly to combat corruption associated with political boss Tom Pendergast.
Lora McDonald, executive director of the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity (MORE2), commented on the systemic challenges of such laws. “There are things like this probably in all of our cities and states,” McDonald said. “It behooves all of us in this United States to continue to weed out wherever we see that kind of racism in law.”
The latest conflict regarding police control began in 2021, when Mayor Lucas and other city leaders attempted to reallocate some police funds towards social services and crime prevention initiatives. State GOP legislators criticized these efforts as a move to “defund” the police amid concerns about the city’s high violent crime rates.