When the Missouri Senate nomination process began on Tuesday (11/2), four Democratic Senators appointed to represent the St. Louis area had to work on the subjects they are passionate about.
Senator Brian Williams submitted three bills. The first, SB60, aims to increase law enforcement accountability through a variety of measures, including restrictions on issues such as arrest warrants, the police officer’s right to use lethal force, the use of chemical agents, and the use of military equipment such as drones or militarized armored vehicles.
No knock warrants became part of the national dialogue when Breonna Taylor was shot and killed five times this year while she was sleeping in her Louisville, Kentucky home. But Williams also points out a more local example of failed no-knock warrants:
In 2014, the St. Louis County SWAT team raided Angela Zorich’s home to conduct a property inspection related to a missing gas bill. Officials shot the family dog after entering the house.
The county has settled a $ 750,000 lawsuit with Zorich.
“So we want to make sure that there are no-knock detention warrant reforms in place and that what happened to Breonna Taylor is prevented from happening right here in Missouri,” Williams said.
The bill also aims to ban the police’s use of chokeholds, such as those used in the George Floyd assassination, and provides that every police station in the state have a written policy regarding the investigation of a death by an officer.
Williams presented the bill earlier this year during the special session. Governor Mike Parson called to crack down on violent crime, but said he and the governor disagree that police reform should be part of fighting violent crime.
“I want to make it clear that this is only about addressing a subculture of bad cops in the police department,” Williams said in an interview. “This is not a ‘us versus you’ situation, we just want to make sure that bad cops are held accountable.”
With his second pre-submitted invoice, SB61, the surcharge for deletion requests is to be reduced by 40%. Eliminate counterfeiting, secured creditors’ fraud, and mortgage fraud charges; Shortening the waiting times for authorization to delete; and allow weapon loads to be deleted for offenses.
“I don’t think a decision someone made in the past should follow them for the rest of their lives,” Williams said. “So this bill implies that if you have been convicted of a non-violent crime, you will have the option to delete your records as soon as you have been removed from the supervised release.”
Its latest bill, SB62, aims to increase the minimum bond amount for charterers. He says this will improve the playing field by creating unified offices across all counties.
“Economic Distress Fund Zone”
Senator Karla May submitted four bills in advance. With their first bill, SB57, the Economic Distress Zone Fund is set up. This would be a fund available to the Ministry of Public Security to provide cash to non-profit organizations providing services to people in “areas with high crime rates and infrastructure degradation”.
Another bill, SB135, is an attempt to combat racial profiling in relation to motor vehicle stops. It would allow every law enforcement agency in Missouri to purchase body cameras with federal funds and introduce a “Fourth Amendment Confirmation Act” that sets out the information an officer must report: whether the driver lives in the jurisdiction of the stop and how the driver’s consent was obtained in the Case given a search.
Her two invoices, SB 58 and SB 59, were pre-filed Tuesday but were not available for review online. The former deals with voting and the latter with gender-specific employment practices.
May was not immediately available for comment.
Police accountability
Senator Steve Roberts said Wednesday he plans to pre-file two bills, one that is also aimed at increasing police accountability. This bill would require law enforcement agencies across the state to report all cases of violence to the Attorney General.
The required reports would contain a range of all available information about the encounter – from demographic information of the civilian to the actions of the police officer and history.
Roberts’ second bill would ensure property tax rates do not rise for anyone over 65. The purpose of this bill is to correct an issue he sees in his district, District 5, which along with parts of the majority of the city of St. Louis includes north and south St. Louis County.
“A lot of seniors are being priced out of their homes in a way because of these exciting new developments, but it increases their property taxes,” he said in a previous interview. “So they have a steady income, they did everything right and they find that they are being evicted from their homes somewhat.”
Senator Angela Mosley confirmed that she pre-filed but that her bills were not immediately available in the Senate database.
The first day of the legislative period is January 6th.