By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Max’s Law has returned and, again, is in good position to pass the Missouri legislature this year.
State Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer of Parkville has succeeded in getting an omnibus crime bill through the Senate and onto the House. It contains Max’s Law, the provision that increases the penalty for killing a police animal, named after K-9 Max, the St. Joseph police dog killed by a suspect he was chasing in 2021.
“I think this is important,” Luetkemeyer tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “These dogs put their lives on the line to protect not only the public, but their human partners from harm. They’re very expensive and they’re difficult to train and I think that the law needs to adequately protect them. And if we get Max’s Law passed this year then it will.”
This is the third consecutive year Luetkemeyer has sponsored the bill after coming ever so close to getting it passed and into law the last two legislative sessions. He first sponsored it in 2022, the year after K-9 Max was shot and killed.
“We actually had the bill through the House and on the Senate floor during the last day of session and because of some filibusters that were occurring over Congressional redistricting, we ended up not being able to bring the bill back up on the last day of session to pass it,” Luetkemeyer explains.
Luetkemeyer succeeded in adding it to an omnibus crime package, one that contained numerous provisions, last legislative session. He then succeeded in getting it through the legislature and onto Gov. Mike Parson’s desk. Parson, though, vetoed the bill, objecting to a provision in the bill that would require the state to compensate those unjustly incarcerated.
“The governor actually said in his veto message that he wanted to sign Max’s Law, he wanted to sign some of the other provisions that were contained in that bill, but vetoed it for unrelated reasons,” Luetkemeyer says. “So, this is the third year we’re back.”
Luetkemeyer, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, removed the offending provision and sent the measure on to the House, which he hopes will send it to the governor.
Luetkemeyer says he has explained to House leadership that it would be a mistake to return the bill to the Senate, because it could fall victim to the filibusters which have stalled action in the upper chamber.
Luetkemeyer doesn’t see any need for the House to change provisions in the bill.
“I think there’s a good justification for that,” Luetkemeyer says. “Number one, it’s substantively identical to the bill that we passed last year, which passed out of both the House and the Senate on a large, bipartisan vote. So, the things that are in the legislation are all things that we know the House agrees with, that the House supported last year.”
Secondly, Luetkemeyer warns the House would be playing with fire to return it to a Senate that has had trouble moving legislation.
The omnibus crime bill sponsored by Luetkemeyer also contains Blair’s Law, named after an 11-year-old Independence girl killed by celebratory gunfire on Independence Day 2011. It would create a felony for shooting off celebratory gunfire that results in the death of someone.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.