KANSAS CITY, MO - Voters in Missouri have passed a constitutional amendment that will require Kansas City to spend at least a quarter of its budget on its police department, an increase from 20 percent.
According to reports, the vote, which took place on Tuesday, August 6th, passed with 51 percent of the statewide vote, compared to the 63 percent of voters that that approved in the ballot measure in 2022 that required the city to spend 20 percent of their budget on the police department. Since that vote, the city has continually met the funding threshold.
When Amendment 4 first appeared on Missouri ballots in November 2022, every county in the state passed the ballot measure, except for the city of St. Louis and the Kansas City portion of Jackson County. According to the data, during the most recent vote, "no" votes prevailed in a number of Missouri counties. Voters in the Kansas City portion of Jackson County rejected the amendment by 66 percent.
NBC News reported that the slim passing of the vote highlights the tension between Republican leaders statewide who are concerned about the possibility of police funding being slashed and the community leaders who say it should be up to them how to spend the local tax dollars.
On X, Republican state Sen. Troy Luetkemeyer wrote, "In Missouri, we defend our police. We don't defund them." Kansas City leaders have reportedly denied any intention of ending or abolishing the police department. On the ballot, voters saw language stating that the measure would cost Kansas City about $38.7 million per year.
Some city leaders said that the approval of the measure means less money for city services that rely on general revenue, which include road infrastructure, fire services, and neighborhood programs. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said that he opposed Amendment 4 saying, "I thank Missouri voters for their good judgement and look forward to presenting them with a future ballot issue that stands for local control in all of our communities."
Kansas City is the only city in Missouri that does not have local control of its police department. Instead, a state board oversees the department's operations, including its budget. Gwen Grant, president of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City said, "We consider this to be a major local control issue. We do not have control of our police department, but we are required to fund it."
Missouri voters initially approved the increase in Kansas City police funding in 2022, but the state Supreme Court made the rare decision to strike it down over concerns about the cost estimates and ordered it to go before voters again this year.
Fights over control of the local police date back to more than a century ago in Missouri. In 1861, during the Civil War, then Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson persuaded the Legislature to pass a law giving the state control over the police department in St. Louis. That statute remained in place until 2013 when voters approved a constitutional amendment returning police to local control.
The state first took over Kansas City police in 1874 and remained in control until 1932, when the state Supreme Court ruled that the appointed board's control of the department was unconstitutional. A few years later, in 1939, at the urging of Governor Lloyd Crow Stark, the state regained control. In 1943, a new law limited the amount a city could be required to appropriate for police to 20 percent of its general revenue in any fiscal year.
The latest power struggle over police control in Kansas City started in 2021 when Lucas and other city leaders unsuccessfully tried to divert a portion of the police department's budget to social services and crime prevention programs. GOP lawmakers in Jefferson City said that the effort was a move to defund the police in a city with a high rate of violent crime. Opponents of Amendment 4 said that it "undermines local lawmakers' ability" to make the best decisions for its residents and that the state should not get a say in local issues like policing.
According to reports, the vote, which took place on Tuesday, August 6th, passed with 51 percent of the statewide vote, compared to the 63 percent of voters that that approved in the ballot measure in 2022 that required the city to spend 20 percent of their budget on the police department. Since that vote, the city has continually met the funding threshold.
When Amendment 4 first appeared on Missouri ballots in November 2022, every county in the state passed the ballot measure, except for the city of St. Louis and the Kansas City portion of Jackson County. According to the data, during the most recent vote, "no" votes prevailed in a number of Missouri counties. Voters in the Kansas City portion of Jackson County rejected the amendment by 66 percent.
NBC News reported that the slim passing of the vote highlights the tension between Republican leaders statewide who are concerned about the possibility of police funding being slashed and the community leaders who say it should be up to them how to spend the local tax dollars.
On X, Republican state Sen. Troy Luetkemeyer wrote, "In Missouri, we defend our police. We don't defund them." Kansas City leaders have reportedly denied any intention of ending or abolishing the police department. On the ballot, voters saw language stating that the measure would cost Kansas City about $38.7 million per year.
Some city leaders said that the approval of the measure means less money for city services that rely on general revenue, which include road infrastructure, fire services, and neighborhood programs. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said that he opposed Amendment 4 saying, "I thank Missouri voters for their good judgement and look forward to presenting them with a future ballot issue that stands for local control in all of our communities."
Kansas City is the only city in Missouri that does not have local control of its police department. Instead, a state board oversees the department's operations, including its budget. Gwen Grant, president of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City said, "We consider this to be a major local control issue. We do not have control of our police department, but we are required to fund it."
Missouri voters initially approved the increase in Kansas City police funding in 2022, but the state Supreme Court made the rare decision to strike it down over concerns about the cost estimates and ordered it to go before voters again this year.
Fights over control of the local police date back to more than a century ago in Missouri. In 1861, during the Civil War, then Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson persuaded the Legislature to pass a law giving the state control over the police department in St. Louis. That statute remained in place until 2013 when voters approved a constitutional amendment returning police to local control.
The state first took over Kansas City police in 1874 and remained in control until 1932, when the state Supreme Court ruled that the appointed board's control of the department was unconstitutional. A few years later, in 1939, at the urging of Governor Lloyd Crow Stark, the state regained control. In 1943, a new law limited the amount a city could be required to appropriate for police to 20 percent of its general revenue in any fiscal year.
The latest power struggle over police control in Kansas City started in 2021 when Lucas and other city leaders unsuccessfully tried to divert a portion of the police department's budget to social services and crime prevention programs. GOP lawmakers in Jefferson City said that the effort was a move to defund the police in a city with a high rate of violent crime. Opponents of Amendment 4 said that it "undermines local lawmakers' ability" to make the best decisions for its residents and that the state should not get a say in local issues like policing.
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