Missouri
Missouri voters pass constitutional amendment requiring increased Kansas City police funding
Missouri voters have once again passed a constitutional amendment requiring Kansas City to spend at least a quarter of its budget on police, up from 20% previously.
Tuesday’s vote highlights tension between Republicans in power statewide who are concerned about the possibility of police funding being slashed and leaders of the roughly 28% Black city who say it should be up to them how to spend local tax dollars.
“In Missouri, we defend our police,” Republican state Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer posted on the social platform X on Tuesday. “We don’t defund them.”
Kansas City leaders have vehemently denied any intention of ending the police department.
Kansas City is the only city in Missouri — and one of the largest in the U.S. — that does not have local control of its police department. Instead, a state board oversees the department’s operations, including its budget.
“We consider this to be a major local control issue,” said Gwen Grant, president of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City. “We do not have control of our police department, but we are required to fund it.”
In a statement Wednesday, Mayor Quinton Lucas hinted at a possible rival amendment being introduced “that stands for local control in all of our communities.”
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.
Voters approved the 2022 measure by 63%. This year, it passed by about 51%.
Fights over control of local police date back more than a century in Missouri.
In 1861, during the Civil War, Confederacy supporter and then-Gov. 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 from 1874 until 1932, when the state Supreme Court ruled that the appointed board’s control of the department was unconstitutional.
The state regained control in 1939 at the urging of another segregationist governor, Lloyd Crow Stark, in part because of corruption under highly influential political organizer Tom Pendergast. In 1943, a new law limited the amount a city could be required to appropriate for police to 20% of its general revenue in any fiscal year.
“There are things like this probably in all of our cities and states,” said Lora McDonald, executive director of the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity, or MORE2. “It behooves all of us in this United States to continue to weed out wherever we see that kind of racism in law.”
The latest power struggle over police control started in 2021, when Lucas and other Kansas City leaders unsuccessfully sought to divert a portion of the department’s budget to social service and crime prevention programs. GOP lawmakers in Jefferson City said the effort was a move to “defund” the police in a city with a high rate of violent crime.
Missouri men’s basketball just keeps rolling.
The Tigers strung together their fifth straight win, this time defeating Arkansas Pine Bluff in a 112-64 blowout at home Sunday afternoon. The second half struggles that have typically come to bite them didn’t appear, instead pushing the same offensive pace until the very end of the contest.
Junior Mark Mitchell was the star of the show for Missouri. The forward scored a season-high 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting, paired with five rebounds and a block. Although not a threat on the perimeter, his offensive prowess inside the paint gives the Tigers a consistent option.
Graduate senior Caleb Grill continued his dominance from behind the arc, dropping 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and 4-of-8 shooting from 3-point range. Senior Tamar Bates also added 13 points of his own on 5-of-8 shooting from the field.
Perhaps the most impressive performance of the night, however, came from sophomore Anthony Robinson II. The guard was everywhere on both sides of the ball, recording a double-double of 11 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and a block on 3-of-7 shooting from the field.
It was the first double-double of Robinson’s young career at Missouri.
The Tigers did struggle to shoot the 3-pointer compared to previous games, finishing with just a 9-of-32 clip. That was negated by their 54 points in the paint, as well as their ability to prevent the Golden Lions from having success in their own right.
Arkansas Pine Bluff shot 9-of-28 from three — a more efficient night of shooting, but on less attempts compared to Missouri. It also turned the ball over 19 times, allowing the Tigers 33 easy points off them.
Missouri also had an uncharacteristically good game under the basket, grabbing 19 offensive rebounds that resulted in 24 second-chance points. Five of those rebounds came from Robinson.
Before Thanksgiving arrives, the Tigers will go up against Lindenwood at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in Mizzou Arena.
|
Arkansas Pine Bluff |
|
|---|---|
|
Christian Moore |
Anthony Robinson II |
|
Zach Reinhart |
Tamar Bates |
|
Caleb Jones |
Annor Boateng |
|
Klemen Vuga |
Mark Mitchell |
|
Quentin Bolton Jr. |
Josh Gray |
Who: Missouri Tigers (4-1, 0-0 SEC) vs. Arkansas Pine-Bluff Golden Lions (1-5, 0-0 SWA)
What: Missouri’s sixth game of the 2024-’25 season
Where: Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Mo.
When: Sunday, November 24, 4:00 p.m.
TV: ESPN+, SECN+
Radio: Tiger Radio Network
Series: Missouri leads 3-0
Last Meeting: Nov. 6, 2023: Missouri opened the season with a 101-79 win over Arkansas Pine-Bluff. Five different players scored over 15 points for Missouri, including Sean East II, Nick Honor, Noah Carter, Caleb Grill and Tamar Bates.
Last Time Out, Missouri: The Tigers handled business in a 91-56 win over Pacific. Guard Caleb Grill continued a hot streak, leading the team with 25 points, including 21 from three-point makes. Grill also notched a career-high with five steals.
Last Time Out, Arkansas Pine-Bluff:The Golden Lions fell on the road to Texas Tech, losing 98-64. Arkansas Pine-Bluff shot 52.1% from the field while Texas Tech shot 59.7%. The Golden Lions were led by guard Christian Moore with 20 points.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Mark Gronowski threw for 258 yards and two touchdowns and Amar Johnson ran for two touchdowns and South Dakota State overwhelmed Missouri State 45-9 on Saturday and claimed a share of the Missouri Valley Football Conference regular-season title.
With the win and North Dakota State’s loss to South Dakota, the Bison, Coyotes and Jackrabbits (10-2, 7-1) all secure a three-way tie for the Missouri Valley Football Conference regular-season title.
Missouri State (8-4, 6-2) entered averaging 37 points per game.
It was Missouri State’s final game as a Missouri Valley Football Conference member before joining Conference USA and the FBS ranks in 2025. Missouri State kicks off next season on Aug. 30 when it travels to Southern Cal.
___
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