After protests over police violence, Missouri lawmakers push to protect officers

For weeks last summer, hundreds of Kansas City protesters marched around the Plaza, knelt in the streets and chanted for police reform.

They joined a national groundswell of protest against police brutality, galvanized by the image of a Black man in Minneapolis dying with an officer’s knee on his neck.

In the Missouri General Assembly, lawmakers have responded. One bill banning police chokeholds, waiting to be heard on the Senate floor, is described by activists as the most promising step forward on statewide police reform in years.

But, for the most part, lawmakers have reacted to Black Lives Matter protests by rallying to strengthen protections for police.

One measure would seal police disciplinary records from public view and add rules for internal investigations that St. Louis’ police commissioner said would make it harder to punish officers for misconduct.

A Senate committee this week considered a bill that would turn the job of police officer into a protected identity like race or gender, making it a hate crime to target one.

And the House unanimously passed a bill that creates a new crime for posting personally identifying information (or “doxing”) of first responders, including police.

“I think when we talk about the violence in our cities and the conduct that goes in some of those chaotic situations, I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think our police departments are the first area I’m looking at in order to look for improved behavior,” said Sen. Bill Eigel, a St. Charles Republican.

A bill of rights for police

Eigel sponsored a package of police protections that passed the Senate this week.

One provision would make it a crime to intentionally block traffic, a tactic frequently employed by protesters. It would be an infraction on first offense and rise to a felony on the third, with the charges being harsher when employed as part of an “unlawful assembly.”

It does not include a controversial measure from a similar bill that would shield drivers from liability for injuring protesters who are blocking traffic. But Eigel’s proposal has still drawn criticism from civil rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri who say it could infringe on First Amendment rights to lawful protest.

The bill would also penalize cities for cutting police budgets by more than 12% — a response to calls to “defund the police,” in favor of alternative social services that do not use force. It would make those convicted of certain crimes in which police officers are victims ineligible for probation.

“Our law enforcement officers are under more scrutiny and more pressure today than they have been in my memory,” Eigel said.

The most substantial proposal is a “police bill of rights” with procedural protections for officers facing disciplinary investigations. Under the bill, police would have the right to be notified of an internal investigation prior to being questioned and the right to an attorney during questioning. Officers could only be interviewed during the their work hours and the investigation would have to be wrapped up in 90 days.

When complete, records of the investigation would be sealed and exempt from disclosure under the Sunshine Law unless ordered released by subpoena or court order.

Eigel said the bill would allow a fairer disciplinary system for officers who “are under more scrutiny and more pressure today than they have been in my memory.”

“We’re making sure certain due process protections that are already in place for a formal criminal procedure are in place during the investigation process for these officers,” Eigel said.

Opponents say the protections could hinder departmental probes of problem officers, and are not needed for internal investigations, which are not criminal cases.

Police bills of rights have been under scrutiny nationally amid the push for police reform. They are written into law in more than a dozen other states, most notably Maryland, where legislators this year are considering a repeal.

Colonel John Hayden, St. Louis police commissioner, wrote to Eigel that notifying officers of alleged violations could jeopardize internal investigations, and “our ability to ensure the good order and discipline necessary to earn public trust would be greatly diminished.”

Kansas City activist and attorney Stacy Shaw said she was concerned police officers would be given extra protections when their union contracts already cover disciplinary proceedings.

“It’s a job,” she said. “They’re no different from a janitor or an administrative assistant who works for the city, except we give them guns.”

A version of the measure was supported by Missouri police associations and the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 99, which represents Kansas City officers. Through an assistant, union president Sgt. Brad Lemon declined to comment.

During an eight-hour filibuster by Democrats this week before the bill cleared the Senate floor, Eigel compromised with Democrats by agreeing to an amendment that would shield the identity of witnesses and complainants from the accused officer, to protect whistleblowing colleagues from retaliation.

He also agreed to include creation of a state fund to help police officers receive mental health services, but declined to require mental health “check-ins” every five years.

‘Very powerful steps’

To Sen. Brian Williams, the measure is more reason for lawmakers also to pass his police accountability bill, which is waiting to be heard on the Senate floor.

That measure, too, has made its way quickly through the Senate, and gotten farther than any police reform bill since the death of Michael Brown at the hands of a Ferguson police officer more than six years ago, Williams said.

“That’s very, very powerful steps,” he said. “We need to ensure there is police accountability and ultimately work towards building trust in the community. We all know that is the very foundation of public safety.”

Originally proposed as a sweeping set of prohibitions on police practices that would curb the use of tear gas and no-knock warrants, the bill has since been pared down.

But Williams said the updated bill retains the most important elements: it would require police departments to look at officers’ history with other law enforcement agencies before hiring them. It would also criminalize officers having sex with detainees.

And it would ban the police chokehold, which killed George Floyd last May. The family of Tory Sanders, a Black man from Tennessee who died in jail in southeast Missouri’s Mississippi County in 2017, accused local authorities in a civil lawsuit of employing a similar move. On Friday, Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who had agreed to review the case originally closed by his predecessor, Sen. Josh Hawley, announced there would be no criminal charges against the jailers or deputies.

To move the bill forward, Senators combined it with a measure sponsored by Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, a Parkville Republican, that lifts the Kansas City Police Department’s residency requirement. The proposal has outraged local politicians who have long wanted local control of the department.

Asked about his support for police reform bills, Eigel said there was “room for those discussions” but he wanted first to address criminal acts committed during protests, such as the damaging of businesses.

“I want to address that before I look at the organizations like our law enforcement that I feel like overwhelmingly do a fantastic job,” he said.