The Missouri legislature is considering a plan that would turn control of the St. Louis Police back over to the state. Business Manager Joe Steiger with the St. Louis Police Officers Association tells KMOX that local control has been a "failed experiment."
"Everybody around the state has a vested interest in St. Louis being safe, in being able to go downtown and feel safe, have officers visible," Steiger said. "And we don't have all that right now. It doesn't seem like it's a priority."
Steiger said support is growing for the measure in the house, but that it could be a "heavy lift" in the Senate.
Missourians voted to approve the shift to local control back in 2013. Prior to that, the St. Louis Police had been under state control dating all the way back to the Civil War. For many cities, local control is the norm, and allows those who preside over the police to be closer to and more in touch with both police and residents. But many officers are unsupportive.
"I think it's a failed experiment. We tried it, and it's just not working," Steiger said. "Crime's gone up, businesses are leaving, police officers are leaving."
The police union is also backing bills to give disability pay to officers suffering PTSD, and to let widows remarry without losing their police survivor's pension.
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