Poll: Missouri Voters Resistant to State Control of Local Police Agencies

As Missouri stands on the verge of controlling the police forces in Kansas City and St. Louis, new polling suggests that Missouri voters oppose the idea of state control in policing.

The poll, released Tuesday by Saint Louis University and British pollster YouGov, found that a plurality of 48% of voters support local control of the Kansas City Police Department while 35% support the current state-controlled board. The remaining 16% said they were not sure.

While Missouri Republicans have largely touted state control as a way to curtail crime in Kansas City, the results signal that the system is not widely popular across the state.

“There’s not a whole lot of support for state control of Kansas City (police),” said Steve Rogers, an associate professor of political science at Saint Louis University who directed the poll.

Rogers emphasized that while voters appeared at odds with Republican lawmakers over state control in policing, the poll also showed that Republicans continue to maintain high approval ratings in Missouri.

The survey of 900 likely Missouri voters was conducted between Feb. 28 and March 2. It has a margin of error of 3.64%. The poll also asked Missourians to weigh in on a host of other issues, including support of President Donald Trump, cell phone use in schools and whether the federal government should ban the popular social media platform TikTok.

The poll comes as Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe is expected to sign legislation, potentially this week, to place the police force in St. Louis under state control, which could dampen efforts to bring local control to Kansas City’s police force.

In a move that sparked criticism from local activists, some Kansas City Democrats voted in favor of the legislation.

In addition to Kansas City, the poll results showed that Missourians largely reject state control in other parts of the state, with 47% supporting local control in St. Louis and 55% backing local control in Springfield. Thirty-nine percent supported state control in St. Louis and only 25% supported it in Springfield.

A solid majority of respondents — 55% — answered that they supported local control of their own local police department. Only 22% said they backed state control in their own city.

State control of police in Kansas City was originally born out of Civil War-era racism. Under the current arrangement, the KCPD is governed by a five-member Board of Police Commissioners, with four appointed by the governor. Mayor Quinton Lucas fills the fifth seat.

The system is largely supported by Missouri Republicans, who have framed state control as a way to curtail violent crime. Lawmakers used that same argument to pass a statewide ballot measure that forced Kansas City to spend more of its general revenue budget on police.

But state control is sharply criticized in Kansas City where local activists and leaders argue it gives Jefferson City too much power over policing and shields the department from local accountability.

As lawmakers tout state control as a tool to stop crime in St. Louis, Kansas City has long struggled with rising crime. The city has recorded record and near-record numbers of homicides in recent years, even as homicides fell in many major cities across the country.

In 2023, the city experienced its deadliest year on record, with 185 killings, according to a count kept by The Star.

Trump, cell phones and TikTok

In addition to the questions about state control, the poll surveyed respondents on whether they supported Trump, cell phone use in schools and the federal government restricting access to TikTok.

The poll found that 56% of Missourians either approved or strongly approved of Trump while 42% disapproved or strongly disapproved. Only 2% of the 900 respondents said they weren’t sure, signaling the polarizing nature of the second-term Republican president.

Rogers, the poll director, said Trump’s approval rating was the highest his poll has ever recorded for a politician in its five years of running the poll.

The results also showed broad support for restricting cell phone use in public schools during instructional time. More than 70% of respondents said districts should be able to ban cell phone use in elementary schools, middle schools and high schools across the state.

At the same time, 46% of respondents said they supported the federal government banning access to social media platforms owned by other countries, such as TikTok, while 34% opposed the idea. However, 20% said they weren’t sure.

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