ÁńÁ«ĘÓƵ

ST. LOUIS — After a dozen years of letting City Hall run the St. Louis police department, state government is set to retake the reins.

At Gov. Mike Kehoe’s urging, lawmakers have sped a takeover plan through the Legislature this session. The newly elected governor says he could sign it as soon as this week.

When he does, it will begin a process that could reshape the department and send ripples through City Hall and the city itself.

The police division is the largest unit of city government in terms of budget and staff. Crime is one of the city’s toughest and most politically sensitive problems, and the successes and failures of police officers have long played an outsize role in how St. Louis is judged by residents, suburbanites and the rest of the country.

Here’s what to know about the impending state takeover.

What will change?

Currently, St. Louis police are overseen by the mayor, the mayor’s appointees and aldermen.

The mayor’s administration hires the police chief and, together, they shape everything from the equipment on an officer’s belt to the beats that officers patrol. They also shape the strategies that guide the officers’ work, whether that’s “hotspot” policing that surges officers to a certain area or “focused deterrence,” which blends policing with social service offerings to those at high risk of committing violence.

The mayor and aldermen also create policies for the department, like rules requiring approval for use of surveillance technology and making officers give out business cards to people they stop and search. The city’s civil service commission, appointed by the mayor, hears officers’ appeals of disciplinary action.

The state’s plan shifts power to a revived Board of Police Commissioners composed of the mayor; four city residents nominated by the governor and approved by the state Senate; and a non-voting commissioner who can live in the city or St. Louis County. The board will hire the chief, set policy and hear disciplinary appeals. 

Aldermen will be forbidden from passing ordinances that conflict or interfere with the board's work.

The mayor will need to negotiate plans and priorities, and there’s no guarantee the board will cooperate.

Jeff Rainford, who served as chief of staff to former Mayor Francis Slay, said that on the last board, some commissioners wanted to work with the mayor, while others saw no reason to listen to him. Others took their cues from the police chief.

“It depends on who the members are,” he said.

Why is this happening?

In 2013, Missouri voters opted to end more than a century of state control of St. Louis police.

Proponents of a revived takeover — including Kehoe, Republican legislators and the city’s police unions — have cast that decision as a mistake that unleashed crime and hurt residents, businesses and officers.

An advocacy letter pointed to estimates showing nearly 40,000 people have left the city in the last 11 years. More than 1,000 officers have resigned or retired, and hundreds haven’t been replaced.

“The grip of violence has caused residents, established small and large businesses, entrepreneurs, and tourists to flee the City,” the letter read. “The legislation under consideration aims to bring crime under control that has been destabilizing to not only the St. Louis region, but to many of our communities.”

City officials, led by Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, say the state’s plan is a farce.

The population loss is real, and the city’s own numbers show there are 300 fewer officers on the force than there were in 2013.

But they point out that the city lost population for decades under state control. They say cities across the country are struggling to hire officers, and note that even with a depleted department, crime has fallen in recent years. The homicide rate has fallen 39% from a record high in 2020.

“All this bill does,” Jones said in a statement last week, “is halt and reverse our progress in service of allowing a small number of non-city-residents to pat themselves on the back because they succeeded in taking away the will of the voters once again.”

When will it happen?

The state’s plan calls for the transition to begin as soon as Kehoe signs the bill. He has told reporters that could happen as soon as next week. City officials expect Kehoe will appoint a transition director at the same time.

Then, the governor will have 90 days to nominate the four voting commissioners.

But the state bill allows the broader transition to extend until July 1, 2026, giving officials time to transfer records and buildings to the new board.

And the amount the city will have to pay for policing will continue to change after the July 2026 deadline.

City Hall will have until 2028 to find a way to meet new funding requirements in full.

How much will it cost the city?

The city will have to spend more than it is now.

The state plan envisions St. Louis spending 22% of its general revenue on the police department by the end of this year, and then adding another 1% in each of the next three years until spending reaches 25% of general revenue for 2028 and beyond.

Exact costs, in dollars, are uncertain. There are questions about what exactly counts as police spending. The answers could drive costs up or down. It’s not even clear who pays the transition director.

But taking lawmakers at their word about wanting to increase police spending, city budget analysts predict the bill could add an extra $36 million to the budget by 2029.

That’s almost as much as the city budgeted for the entire Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department last year, and 25% more than the city budgeted for the trash division this year.

It’s not immediately clear where the city would find the extra money.

Is the city fighting the move?

Mayor Jones has promised to fight the takeover, which likely means going to court.

But as of Friday, city lawyers were still reviewing the final legislation passed by lawmakers. And if they had found a silver bullet to block the legislation, they were not telling.

“We’re probably not going to be able to stop this immediately,” said Jay Nelson, chief of staff to Aldermanic President Megan Green.

Robert Dierker, a retired circuit judge and associate city counselor, said St. Louis would likely face an uphill battle if it sued.

The original Board of Police Commissioners faced a number of legal challenges that established the Legislature’s right to impose it. A 1982 case gave the city more power over budgeting, but voters approved a constitutional amendment last year aimed at overruling that.

“The bottom line is that to prevail, they’re going to have to persuade the (Missouri) Supreme Court to overrule a number of precedents,” Dierker said.

Conner Kerrigan, a spokesperson for Jones, said the mayor’s administration is “exploring all possible avenues.”

Alderwoman Cara Spencer, who could replace Jones as mayor after the upcoming April election, said her team also is evaluating options.

“Our drive will be to protect St. Louisans,” Spencer said.

Editor’s note: The governor said he expects to sign the police takeover bill next week. An earlier version of this story was incorrect.