°µÍø½ûÇø

Kehoe in a Wednesday statement said he looks forward to seeing the bill on his desk and praised lawmakers for “prioritizing public safety.�

If enacted, the measure will make St. Louis one of very few major U.S. cities that do not manage their own police departments. Most, if not all, are Democratic led, made up of mostly minorities or are otherwise racially diverse.

“Individuals want to take over our police department because we have a African-American female mayor who currently serves the city of St. Louis," Democratic St. Louis Rep. Kimberly-Ann Collins said during Wednesday debate in the House. "That’s what this is about.�

The Missouri bill follows years of population loss, a rise in homicides, and between city leaders and GOP state officials. Republicans argue change is needed to restore order in St. Louis, the economic heart of the state.

“I love my hometown and I want my wife and four kids to feel as safe and joyful as I did when I was going to Cardinal games as a child with my dad," said Republican bill sponsor Rep. Brad Christ, of St. Louis. “I want the same for every kid in that region.�

whether the police force is under state or local control won't make much difference when it comes to stemming homicides in St. Louis.

Comparing recent crime trends in St. Louis to Kansas City, which remains , shows both cities have seen homicide surges since 2014. Homicides peaked in and in 2020 but have since dropped.

Both cities also saw upticks in homicides in the early 1990s when both police agencies were under state control.

Elsewhere, New Jersey gutted the city police department in Camden — a poor city of mostly brown and Black residents just across the river from Philadelphia — in 2013 and force that patrols only the city and not the suburbs.

And Paterson, New Jersey, the state’s third-largest city, saw its by state Attorney General Matt Platkin in 2023.

The takeover followed years of tension between the department and residents, including a high-profile fatal shooting by officers of a crisis intervention worker who had barricaded himself inside an apartment. The ousted police chief sued to block the takeover and a state appeals court agreed that Platkin had overstepped by using his authority to install an officer-in-charge.

Platkin has appealed to the state Supreme Court, which has pending its decision.

Paterson’s police department is the largest to be taken over by the state in recent years, but it isn’t the only one. Among the others in New Jersey are the 11-officer department in Lavallette, as well as three others in Union County.

’s majority-white and Republican-controlled Legislature in 2023 passed a bill to expand the territory of a state-run police department inside the state’s Democratic-led capital city. About 83% of Jackson, Mississippi, residents are Black, the largest percentage of any major U.S. city.

Capitol Police have “concurrent� jurisdiction with Jackson police .

Police in both St. Louis and Kansas City have a of governor-appointed state board oversight.

During the Civil War, Missouri was sharply divided between Union and Confederate supporters, with much of the Union support centered in St. Louis and Kansas City, which had larger Black populations than elsewhere in the state.

In 1861, Missouri Gov. Claiborne Fox Jackson, who supported the Confederacy, persuaded the Legislature to pass a law giving the state control over the police department in St. Louis. Missouri voters in 2013 approved a constitutional amendment returning that department to local control.

Around then, a mayor’s task force in Kansas City narrowly recommended continuing state control over its police.

St. Louis' mayor condemned the proposal to restore state oversight as an “autocratic� power grab.

“I cannot and will not sit down and allow this complete disregard for democracy to compromise the safety of our residents for political gain," Jones said in a statement Monday. "This fight is far from over.�

____

Associated Press reporter Mike Catalini contributed to this report from Trenton, New Jersey.

___

This story was updated on March 13, 2025, to remove a file photo of the St. Louis County Police Department.