Missouri 2024 Lesson Summaries
2024 Lesson 12: Missouri Legislative Update
Legal
Release Date:
8/1/2024
This lesson identifies and explains many of the 2024 amendments to the Missouri Revised Statutes that are relevant to law enforcement. The first section examines procedural laws, including restrictions on arrest warrants for certain unpaid traffic citations, increased authority for law enforcement to request audits of governmental agencies, changes to reviewing convictions based on claims of actual innocence, limitations to powers of civilian police oversight boards, and the creation of a task force to help police officers stop cyberstalking and harassment. The second section examines real property laws, including peace officers’ ability to arrest squatters, changes to the notice sheriffs must give before a tax sale, the new offense of criminal mischief for unlawfully occupying someone else’s residence, and prohibitions on eviction moratoriums. Section three examines laws pertaining to juveniles, including committing the crime of endangering the welfare of a child by aiding a child to commit a weapons offense, new restrictions on when a juvenile may be certified as an adult and be paroled, and the non-violation of compulsory attendance laws if the child is absent from school due to mental or behavioral health concerns, needing to participate in criminal proceedings, or because the student is receiving instruction in a FPE (family paced education) school. Section four examines new criminal offenses including aggravated fleeing a stop or detention of a motor vehicle, delivery or distribution of a controlled substance causing serious physical injury or death, and unlawful discharge of a firearm within or into the limits of a municipality (Blair’s Law). Section five examines other legislation, including criminal violations of the Money Transmission Modernization Act of 2024, changes to expungements of criminal records, and increased penalties for several criminal offenses.