By Summer Ballentine
Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri voters have once again passed a constitutional amendment requiring Kansas City to spend at least a quarter of its budget on police, up from 20% previously.
“In Missouri, we defend our police,” Republican state Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer posted on the social platform X on Tuesday. “We don’t defund them.”
Kansas City leaders have vehemently denied any intention of ending the police department.
Missouri voters initially approved the increase in Kansas City police funding in 2022, but the state Supreme Court made the rare decision to strike it down over concerns about the cost estimates and ordered it to go before voters again this year.
Voters approved the 2022 measure by 63%. This year, it passed by about 51%.
Kansas City is the only city in Missouri — and one of the largest in the U.S. — that does not have local control of its police department. Instead, a state board oversees the department’s operations, including its budget.
“We consider this to be a major local control issue,” said Gwen Grant, president of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City. “We do not have control of our police department, but we are required to fund it.”
In a statement Wednesday, Mayor Quinton Lucas hinted at a possible rival amendment being introduced “that stands for local control in all of our communities.”
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