St. Louis resident Jamala Rogers and Mike Milton are challenging Missouri’s legislative attempt to usurp control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD) through House Bill 495.
In a lawsuit filed on their behalf by ArchCity Defenders, Rogers and Milton maintain that the law violates the Missouri Constitution by imposing special legislation on a single jurisdiction and by levying an unfunded mandate against St. Louis City taxpayers.
“SLMPD police killings are nearly four times higher than cities like Chicago and Los Angeles”
“As we can see from recent legislative sessions, this is a pattern of overturning the vision of everyday people who are living and trying to make St. Louis home, despite extreme obstacles,” says Blake Strode, Executive Director of ArchCity Defenders.
“Particularly, in this post-tornado landscape, it is clear that public safety means a lot of things: we need money for things like emergency systems, forestry, streets, and housing support for families. Forcing St. Louisans to underwrite these narrow and undesired police investments is wrong and unlawful.”
“Given the context of the current political climate, it’s clear we need to fight harder for the democratic processes that defend citizen participation. We the people are being cut out of the equation — even when we win,” says Rogers, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Organization for Black Struggle. “The unique and often unrestricted authority of police in our society sets it up to be resistant to any change, let alone genuine transformation to reimagine public safety in the eyes of the communities where we live, work, and play.”
Since 1980, the Hancock Amendment to the Missouri Constitution forbids the Missouri legislature from implementing new policies or requirements for local governments without providing funding. That’s exactly what is happening here: the Missouri legislature has required the City of St. Louis to shift and increase funding to the police department without providing the financial support to make it happen. This leaves City taxpayers on the hook for the legislature’s ideas.
The Missouri Constitution also forbids passing ‘local’ or ‘special’ laws that create requirements for only one municipality or county. There is no reason the State controls SLMPD but doesn’t seek to control the police in Rolla or Joplin, or Springfield.
Under the new law, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD) is no longer under the direction of local officials. Instead, it is governed by a state-appointed board of commissioners, with members selected by the governor and confirmed by the state senate. The legislation also mandates that the City of St. Louis provide additional annual funding to SLMPD, exceeding the department’s already substantial budget.
“Money that could be going to housing, to mental health care, to preventing violence before it starts, will be funneled back into a system we know doesn’t keep us safe,” Milton said when expressing his concerns about increasing the SLMPD budget. “SLMPD is one of the deadliest police forces in the country, and state control provides less accountability, not more.”
According to Milton, SLMPD police killings are nearly four times higher than cities like Chicago and Los Angeles. He says Black residents are 4.3 times more likely to be subjected to force than white residents. In Black-majority neighborhoods, use-of-force incidents happen nearly three times more often than in white ones.
“This is not just a pattern. It is a crisis, and it is happening in a city that is nearly half Black,” he said. “In our work, we learned that real safety doesn’t come from the state. It comes from us, interrupting harm at the root, demanding truth, and keeping power where it belongs, with the community.”
Miton is the founder of Freedom Community Center, a Black-led organization dedicated to dismantling systems of oppression and fostering community-based alternatives to incarceration. In his current role and previously, Milton and his team at The Bail Project routinely coach individuals trapped in the legal system because they lack support to de-escalate violence, find safe and affordable housing, and achieve economic stability.
The lawsuit challenges House Bill 495, which requires the City of St. Louis to allocate even more of its annual budget to the police department, placing a growing financial burden on local taxpayers. According to the plaintiffs, this mandate violates Missouri’s Hancock Amendment, which bars the state from shifting the cost of large-scale government operations onto local jurisdictions without voter approval.
In 2012, Missourians successfully mobilized to return local control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD) to the City of St. Louis through a statewide ballot initiative. From 2013 to 2025, St. Louis residents have exercised oversight and advocacy, achieving several key reforms. These include establishing a Civilian Oversight Board, implementing community control over police surveillance, issuing executive orders, defunding vacant police positions, and exposing the shortcomings of internal investigations.
Under the terms of HB 495, the state-appointed Board has the authority to unilaterally override or alter any local policy reforms or limitations enacted by the City.