SPONSOR: Parker
COMMITTEE ACTION: Voted "Do Pass" by the Standing Committee on Crime and Public Safety by a vote of 13 to 0. Voted "Do Pass" by the Standing Committee on Rules-Legislative by a vote of 10 to 0.
Currently, the salary schedule report prepared by the Superintendent of the State Highway Patrol must include a comparison of the three largest police departments in the State. This bill requires the report to also include a comparison of the salaries and benefits of police officers employed by the law enforcement agencies located in surrounding states as specified in the bill.
This bill is the same as HB 2701 (2024).
PROPONENTS: Supporters say that, currently, the superintendent of the Highway Patrol has to do a salary schedule report to make recommendations on what troopers' salaries should be, and, for the report, the superintendent looks at the three largest counties to determine what the salaries should be. This bill wants the superintendent to look at the salaries of the surrounding states as well. This could assist in the recruitment and retention of troopers. Troopers are going to other states, as recently as the last quarter when three troopers left to go to Oklahoma. There are other agencies in the state that pay more than the Highway Patrol but they want to be comparable to the Highway Patrols of other states. The Highway Patrol has 164 vacancies currently, and they are unable to get people in the door to even fill the vacancies.
Testifying in person for the bill were Representative Parker; Arnie Dienoff; Dusty Hoffman, Missouri State Troopers' Association.
OPPONENTS: There was no opposition voiced to the committee.
Written testimony has been submitted for this bill. The full written testimony and witnesses testifying online can be found under Testimony on the bill page on the House website.
Statutes affected: