As the pre-filing bill process in the Missouri Senate began Tuesday, (11/2) four Democratic senators set to represent the St. Louis area got to work on the issues they’re passionate about.
Sen. Brian Williams filed three bills. The first, SB60, which seeks to increase law enforcement accountability through several measures including limits on issues such as no-knock warrants, police officer’s right to use deadly force, deploying chemical agents and 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 five times and killed while sleeping in her home this year in Louisville, Kentucky. But Williams also points to a more local example of no-knock warrants gone wrong:
In 2014, St. Louis County SWAT Team raided Angela Zorich’s home in order to conduct a property inspection related to a missed gas bill. Officers shot and killed the family’s dog after entering the home.
The county settled a lawsuit for $750,000 with Zorich.
“So we want to address making sure there are reforms around no-knock arrest warrants and also preventing what happened to Breonna Taylor from happening right here in Missouri,” Williams said.
The bill also seeks to ban police use of chokeholds, like the one used in the killing of George Floyd, and stipulates that each police department in the state will have a written policy regarding the investigation of an officer-involved death.
Williams introduced the bill earlier this year during the special session Gov. Mike Parson called to address violent crime, but he said he and the governor disagree on the idea that police reform should be a part of addressing violent crime.
“I want to be clear, this isn’t about anything but tackling a subculture of bad police officers in the police department,” Williams said in an interview. “This isn’t an ‘us versus them’ situation, we just want to make sure that bad police officers are being held accountable.”
His second pre-filed bill, SB61, seeks to reduce the surcharge on expungement petitions by 40%; allow forgery, defrauding secured creditors, and mortgage fraud charges to be expunged; decrease wait times for expungement eligibility; and allow misdemeanor weapon charges to be expunged.
“I don’t think a decision someone made in the past should follow them for the rest of their lives,” Williams said. “So what this bill includes is that if you’ve been convicted of a nonviolent offense it allows you an opportunity to have your record expunged once you’re removed from supervised release.”
His last bill, SB62, seeks to increase the minimum bond amount for recorders of deeds, which he says will level the playing field by creating uniformity in offices across counties.
“Economic Distress Fund Zone”
Sen. Karla May has pre-filed four bills. Her first bill, SB57, establishes the “Economic Distress Zone Fund.” This would be a fund at the Department of Public Safety’s disposal to provide money to nonprofits providing services to people in “in areas of high incidents of crime and deteriorating infrastructure.”
Another bill, SB135, is an effort to combat racial profiling in regards to motor vehicle stops. It would allow any Missouri law enforcement agency to purchase body cameras with federal funds, and establishes a “Fourth Amendment Affirmation Act,” which stipulates the information an officer must report: whether the driver resides in the jurisdiction of the stop and how the driver’s consent was given in the case of a search.
Her two bills, SB 58 and SB 59, were pre-filed Tuesday but were not available for review online. The former deals with voting and the latter employment practices relating to gender.
May was not immediately available for comment.
Police accountability
Sen. Steve Roberts said Wednesday he plans to pre-file two bills, one that also aims to increase police accountability. That bill would require law enforcement agencies statewide to report all use of force instances to the Attorney General’s office.
The required reports would include a range of all available information about the encounter — from demographic information of the civilian to the police officer’s actions and prior history.
Roberts’ second bill would ensure that property tax rates do not increase for people over the age of 65. This bill seeks to alleviate an issue he sees in his district, District 5, which encompasses the majority of St. Louis city along with parts of north and south St. Louis County.
“A lot of senior citizens are, in a sense, being priced out of their homes because there are these new, exciting developments going on, but it’s causing their property taxes to increase,” he said in a previous interview. “So they’re on a fixed income, they’ve done everything right, and they’re finding that they’re somewhat being pushed out of their homes.”
Sen. Angela Mosley confirmed she has pre-filed, however her bills were not immediately available in the Senate database.
The first day of the legislative session is Jan. 6.
