A Missouri bill would keep repeat juvenile offenders off the streets, even as seven people were shot during violent street takeovers over the 314 Day weekend and a 17-and-younger curfew was enforced by St. Louis City Police this past weekend.
The bill, which has reached the governor’s desk, targets a juvenile justice system that state Sen. Nick Schroer says currently acts as a revolving door for young criminals. The St. Charles County Republican authored Senate Bill 888 to end what he calls “catch and release.”
“A lot of these kids are emboldened to be harder criminals,” Schroer said in an interview with Heartlander News. “And we’ve seen this in the news even recently, with a bunch of juveniles going into the streets of St. Louis thinking they can get away with basically everything because they have been.”
The senator says he believes police are fighting juvenile crime blindfolded, so his bill creates a combined database for police and prosecutors to share criminal history data. Current sealed records often hide a teen’s criminal history even from officers patrolling the streets.
Schroer says police might encounter a rowdy group of kids and have no idea they are dealing with habitual offenders. The new database would change that dynamic.
“This combining of databases gives law enforcement and the criminal justice system the tools to look at these cases, including prosecutors and police, Schroer said, adding an officer “may come up to a group of kids that are rambunctious or have had complaints, and you can kind of see this kid’s been arrested five times this week.”
Under the current system, Schroer says juvenile officers sometimes only charge a minor with a single crime even if they broke into dozens of cars, for example.
“[They’re] only going to look at one of those crimes, and that would result in the perpetrator, the kid, being back out on the streets before the police would even process the paperwork.”
To fix that problem, the bill would require juvenile officers to consider every charge submitted by law enforcement when deciding whether to detain a child.
The legislation also requires hearings for minors accused of multiple unrelated felonies and allows judges to transfer habitual offenders to adult court in some of the most egregious cases.
The overall goal is to stop the cycle of crime before young people become permanent fixtures in the criminal justice system.
On Friday, 23 juveniles who violated curfew were detained in downtown St. Louis, with the youngest being 11 years old. Only six of those detained were actually residents of St. Louis City. No additional juveniles were detained Saturday or Sunday, according to city officials.
St. Louis City Mayor Cara Spencer looks at the weekend’s curfew for young people as a big win.
“With no known instances of youth gun violence occurring this past weekend, my office and I consider the weekend efforts to have been a success. We also appreciate the opportunity to connect these 23 families with existing resources and support,” Spencer said in a statement.
Of those detained, 17 juveniles were returned to their parents, while citations were given for violating the curfew and “contributing to the delinquency of a minor.”
