ST. LOUIS — City officials on Friday launched a court challenge of a new state law that spells out and expands the rights of police officers across Missouri when they face internal investigations.
The city’s lawsuit complains that the measure, passed by the Legislature in May, requires St. Louis to treat its police officers differently than all other civil service employees “without rational basis.”
The suit, which Mayor Tishaura O. Jones’ office said was filed in Cole County Circuit Court in Jefferson City, also attacks a provision that the suit says requires the city to defend officers for actions taken when moonlighting as security personnel for private companies.
That, the city alleges, violates a state constitutional provision barring the use of public funds for private purposes.
The suit also asks that a judge throw out the law because it assigns the city more duties and costs investigating and defending officers without providing state money to pay for it.
The law “is an unfunded mandate that subverts equal protection guaranteed under the law,” mayoral spokesman Nick Dunne said in a statement.
Moreover, the suit complains that the bill is unconstitutional because it also contains law changes on various subjects not related to its stated purpose of public safety.
Jeff Roorda, business manager for the St. Louis Police Officers Association — which backed the bill — said attorneys who reviewed it for supporters are “fully confident that the statute is legal.”
He called it the most important legislation affecting officers across Missouri passed in the past 10 years.
He said while the law adds some new protections for St. Louis officers, other provisions mirror practices already in place in the city through the association’s contract and police regulations.
