The Safer Missouri Citizens Coalition submitted more than 164,000 voter signatures to the Missouri Secretary of State. These signatures show voters’ support of placing the “A Safer Missouri Initiative” (also known as the “Local Control Initiative”) on the 2012 ballot.
Listen here KMOX News Radio John Hancock and Mike Kelley get the latest on local police control from Brooke Foster who is the spokesperson for the local control campaign.
St. Louis officials are way ahead of Kansas City. Mayor Francis Slay and others have been working tirelessly to wrest back control of their department. That effort is expected to pay off this November, when voters statewide decide the fate of an initiative petition to give the city local control.
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Today in Cole County Circuit Court, Judge Patricia Joyce ruled against the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri, which had filed a suit to challenge the ballot title of the Local Control initiative supported by Safer Missouri Citizens Coalition.
Today, the people and City of St. Louis do not have control of their own police department. Under an old law passed during the Civil War, the state government
controls the St Louis City police operations and budget This antiquated law does not make sense from a safety perspective, nor does it make sense from a budgetary perspective.
The Safer Missouri Coalition Initiative repeals this outdated state law, so that the people of St. Louis finally have control over their own police department – just like people do in other cities and towns across the nation. This is a common-sense measure that returns control of the St. Louis police department to where it belongs: with the people and City of St. Louis.