By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A state senator will move, once again, to make it a felony to shoot and kill a police dog.
Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer of Parkville, who represents both Platte and Buchanan Counties in the Missouri Senate, ran out of time last session to move his bill, which he calls Max’s Law in honor of K-9 Max, the St. Joseph police dog shot and killed in late June of 2021 in the line of duty. Luetkemeyer says the law would not only help protect animals, but the humans they serve.
“But for these K-9 officers, many times their human partners would be in harm’s way and at risk of being shot themselves if it weren’t for these animals,” Luetkemeyer tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “And so, we need to make sure that we’re protecting them.”
At present, Missouri law makes it only a misdemeanor to kill a police dog.
Luetkemeyer met with St. Joseph Police Officer Lucas Winder after the death of Max. Winder asked Luetkemeyer to consider sponsoring legislation to stiffen the penalty for killing a police dog. Under Luetkemeyer’s bill, killing a police dog would be a Class D felony which could come with prison time.
Luetkemeyer says these are not mere dogs.
“It’s a law enforcement officer,” Luetkemeyer says. “These police dogs, whenever they are trained and brought into the force, I mean they’re sworn in as K-9 officers. They are police officers. And so, we should be protecting them as such.”
Luetkemeyer says it surprised him when he learned current state law considers the killing of a police dog a misdemeanor.
Luetkemeyer says he wants to address the light penalty for killing a police dog, but also wants to honor Max with his legislation.
“Part of it is passing a law to make sure that we’re preventing crimes like this from happening in the future,” according to Luetkemeyer. “In addition, we have a law enforcement K-9 who prompted this legislation to be filed by me. So, I want to be able to honor Max, to be able to honor the St. Joseph Police Department, and to be able to honor Officer Winder by having the legislation bear Max’s name.”
The bill appeared on the verge of passing during the last legislative session. Luetkemeyer says it cleared the House, which returned the bill to the Senate for debate. It never came to the floor for debate as time ran out on the last day of the legislative session.