Missouri House passes some, but not all, Parson crime bills as session nears one month

The Missouri House passed a handful of measures on Tuesday to create a witness protection fund and increase penalties for involving children in weapon and drug offenses, parts of an anti-crime package pushed by Gov. Mike Parson as Kansas City and St. Louis grapple with a surge of homicides this year.

The legislation was the first advanced out of the House since Parson, a Republican on the November ballot, recalled lawmakers to Jefferson City for a special session focused on crime nearly a month ago. The Senate passed its own crime bill earlier in August.

The votes come during a violent year in Kansas City, which has experienced at least 131 homicides so far, against 102 at this time last year. As of Aug. 6, St. Louis had recorded 158 homicides – about 40 percent more than the same point last year, according to the Associated Press.

“I think the more you look at it violent crime is a huge problem in our state,” said Rep. Jonathan Patterson, a Lees Summit Republican who sponsored one of the measures.

Some elements of Parson’s agenda remain sidelined in the House. A bill to give the Missouri attorney general the power to prosecute murder cases in St. Louis hasn’t advanced. Another proposal to require a court to determine if a juvenile should be tried as an adult for unlawful use of a weapon also hasn’t moved.

But several other components passed the chamber Tuesday, including the bill championed by Patterson to create a fund that law enforcement agencies could use to pay for the protection of criminal witnesses.

“I think we definitely need to do something,” Patterson said. “What law enforcement is telling us is they need tools to protect witnesses so that they can testify against these criminals and start getting some of them behind bars.”

The bill passed 147-3. Lawmakers also approved an emergency clause that would allow the bill to go into effect sooner if it becomes law.

Morgan Said, a spokeswoman for Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, called witness protection “an important tool in fighting crime and building community trust in Missouri.”

“It is a positive that it moved forward today,” she said.

Democrats raised concerns that while the legislation would create a fund, lawmakers haven’t approved any money for it. Patterson said a special session to appropriate dollars could run concurrently with the September veto session.

Rep. Peter Merideth, a St. Louis City Democrat, chastised colleagues for declaring the bill an emergency while not addressing other problems.

“Or the emergency of Americans across the country waking up to the realities of systemic racism that people in our country have faced for generations and still do today, are we here addressing any of that as folks are marching in the street? Nope, nope, that’s not an emergency worth our time today,” Meredith said.

Parson has faced criticism for excluding police reform from the scope of the special session. In July, Jackson County Democratic Rep. Ashley Bland Manlove said she was “furious” about the governor “passing the buck” on the root causes of violent crime.

Lawmakers on Tuesday also approved, 133-11, a bill that would allow other inadmissible witness statements in criminal cases if a judge finds a preponderance of evidence that the defendant took steps to make a witness unavailable and the witness failed to appear. Another measure, approved 117-33, says an individual endangers a child by knowingly causing the child to engage in weapons offenses or controlled substance offenses.

Additionally, the House passed a bill 117-35 that prohibits St. Louis public safety employees, including police officers, hired prior to Sept. 1, 2023, from being required to live in the city.

The legislation now heads to the Senate, which won’t convene until Friday.

This story was originally published August 25, 2020 at 2:57 PM.