February 14, 2025

KANSAS CITY — Kansas City Mayor Sly James has sent a letter to St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay offering his support to a statewide ballot measure that would let the city control its police department. The Kansas City Star reports the letter is an opening move by James to return the Kansas City Police Department to local control. State-appointed police boards control the St. Louis and Kansas City police departments. They are the only large American cities that don’t control their police departments. The St. Louis ballot measure is on the November ballot. The state has controlled the St. Louis police since the Civil War, when Missouri Gov. and Confederate sympathizer Claiborne Jackson seized control of the department in a failed attempt to keep weapons away from St. Louis Unionists. In 1939, Gov. Lloyd Stark, a rival of Kansas City boss Tom Pendergast, seized control of the Kansas City department. Kansas city police usually ignored gambling, prostitution and saloons, which were a major source of the Pendergast political machine’s revenues. After the state took over, about half of the police force was fired for corruption.
Monday, Aug. 27, 3 p.m.

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