By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A simple bill took on added weight and more importance as it worked its way through this year’s Missouri legislative session, becoming the primary crime bill of the session.
State Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer of Parkville tells the Missourinet his bill to lift the residency requirement to be a Kansas City police officer soon became legislation to prevent police brutality. It included making it a crime for an officer to use a choke hold, though Luetkemeyer says it’s not a blanket prohibition.
“If an officer is in a life-threatening situation, they should be able to do anything, including discharging their firearm, to protect themselves and innocent third parties who are under their care,” Luetkemeyer tells the Missourinet. “And so we did not want to have a blanket prohibition. If an officer fears for their life or the safety of somebody who is under their care, they should still be able to use any type of maneuver that they need to engage in self-defense. So, that’s what we were making clear in the statute.”
Luetkemeyer says most police departments in Missouri already prohibit the use of choke holds.
The issue rose to national prominence in wake of the death of George Floyd after a Minneapolis police officer held his knee on his neck last year, but Luetkemeyer doesn’t believe the controversy played much of a role in the legislature’s approval of his bill.
Luetkemeyer says the legislation doesn’t just ban chokeholds, it alters officer training and creates transparency.
“There is a police training component in there, provisions in there that track excessive force cases so we have a better way of tracking that and understanding use of force around the state of Missouri and looking at it in some type of comprehensive manner so that if we need to study it in the future we have an ability to do that,” Luetkemeyer says.
Gov. Mike Parson has signed the bill into law.