JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. January 9, 2012--The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri (ACLU-EM) has filed a lawsuit challenging the language of an initiative that would appear on the November 2012 ballot. The initiative would transfer control of the St. Louis Police Department from the state of Missouri to the City of St. Louis. However, the summary fails to inform voters that the initiative creates important exemptions to the Civilian Review provisions of the Missouri Racial Profiling Law and to parts of the Missouri Sunshine Law. These exemptions would apply only to St. Louis.
The initiative would give the civil service commission “exclusive authority over all discipline processes and procedures” and close all disciplinary records to everyone outside the civil service commission.
“We’ve always been proponents of having St. Louis control its own police department,” says ACLU-EM Executive Director Brenda Jones, “but we shouldn’t have to sacrifice open records, open government, or independent civilian review of police to get it. That’s what this initiative will do if it passes, and the summary does not make that clear to voters.”
The current summary emphasizes the transfer of police control from the state to the city. The new exemptions, however, would put serious constraints on St. Louis citizens’ ability to oversee the department. Because the initiative gives the civil service commission “exclusive authority over all discipline processes and procedures” and explicitly closes all disciplinary records to those outside the civil service commission, it makes an effective St. Louis Civilian Review Board impossible. Any review board created for the city would be unable to look at records required for a proper determination of the facts.
Also, the closing of discipline records to all but the civil service commission carves out a space for St. Louis police to avoid the Sunshine Law. As Legal Director Tony Rothert explains, “We have fought for years to insure that St. Louis police abide by the Missouri Supreme Court decision that investigative reports are open records if they stem from allegations of criminal conduct. The ballot initiative would allow local police to avoid significant portions of that decision.”
The ACLU-EM lawsuit claims that this change in state law should also be reflected in the ballot summary. Jones said, “It’s important to resist attempts to mislead voters, even if it is only by omission.”
The four plaintiffs in the case are long-time grassroots supporters of local control who nevertheless oppose this version. They represent the broad citizen coalition that initiated the push for local control and that continues to support a legislative solution to the problem.