ST. LOUIS • The 152-year reign of state control of the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Metropolitan Police Department will end on Saturday. Â
Mayor Francis Slay is expected to sign an executive order officially accepting local control of the police department, which will begin on Sept. 1. Â
The outgoing state board of police commissioners will convene for its final meeting, before the city resumes control at midnight. Â The meeting, followed by a ceremony, is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. at police headquarters. Â
Pro-South politicians devised the state control of police to thwart Union sympathizers in ºüÀêÊÓƵ in 1861, as the Civil War drew near. Next month’s change leaves Kansas City alone among large cities whose police are controlled by a state board.
The city has spent months working on the transition. Â
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The power switch won't be evident to residents over the weekend, but various changes are in store. Â
Responsibility for the department now falls solely at the mayor's door, not the five-person board that has operated the department for more than a century. Â
The city says they expect to cut bureaucracy, increase technology (like monitored cameras and license plate recognition software), integrate other city departments, and do more hot-spot policing. Â
A five-member transition committee has been created to make nonbinding recommendations.
City agencies will absorb some of the department’s operations, including information technology, fleet management, human resources, facilities management, printing operations and, potentially, the legal division.