A consortium of major city law enforcement officials is calling for special courts to handle gun offenses in Kansas City and in St. Louis. The recommendations come from an Urban Crime Summit called by Attorney General Chris Koster last September.
Both cities recorded more than 100 gun-related homicides last year. Missouri had the ninth-highest homicide rate in the nation. “We’re…trying to put together a concentrated docket where a few judges would deal with all of these crimes and deal with them with a greater level of severity and of uniformity,” he says.
The summit involved the mayors and police chiefs of both of Missouri’s major cities as well as the St. Louis County Executive and county police chief.
Koster says some state laws might need changing before the special courts could be established.
