A bill restricting the use of low-flying drones and directing the state to automatically expunge drug offenses of thousands of eligible Missourians passed the General Assembly Friday.
The House voted 110-25 to approve the bill, with 18 Democrats and seven Republicans in opposition.
The underlying legislation, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Nick Schroer of Defiance, expands an existing law against operating drones over open-air stadiums or concert venues, reducing the minimum occupancy of facilities where restrictions apply from 5,000 to 500. It would also be illegal to fly drones over power plants, pipelines and wireless communications infrastructure.
A conference committee of lawmakers from both the House and Senate removed dozens of amendments from the bill, which were added in the House last week in lawmakers’ last-ditch efforts to push their legislation across the finish line.
Lawmakers approved a measure mandating automatic expungement of felony or misdemeanor drug possession and unlawful use of drug paraphernalia. Drug trafficking would not be eligible for expungement. A previous version of the legislation included all clean slate-eligible offenses, including theft and property crimes.
Democratic state Sen. Brian Williams of University City, one of the sponsors of the legislation, told The Independent automatic expungement would provide relief to Missourians who have served their sentences and are eligible to have their records cleared, but have struggled to find housing or employment.
“This is streamlining the process and is moving our state toward…not only helping people clear their records that are eligible,” Williams said, “but also building a workforce of tomorrow, and most importantly, helping people be able to be model citizens and not have a past mistake follow them for the rest of their lives.”
The bill requires automatic expungement measures to go into effect by Jan. 1, 2027, or as soon as it’s feasible for the Missouri Highway Patrol and Office of the State Courts Administrator. It’s “highly likely” that people will start to see offenses expunged sometime in 2026, Williams said.
The legislation also includes measures raising salaries for prosecuting attorneys, increasing penalties for the distribution or trafficking of fentanyl and carfentanil and requiring criminal background checks for staff and volunteers at overnight camps.
Democratic state Sen. Karla May of St. Louis said during Senate debate on the bill this week that if prosecuting attorneys get a raise, defense attorneys should, too.
“I like the balanced scales of justice,” May said. “If they give the prosecutors a raise but don’t give the defense attorneys a raise, it imbalances the scales.”
The bill also included a provision that would allow Missourians with health conditions or disabilities impairing their ability to communicate to apply for a designation associated with their driver’s license that would be available to law enforcement.
Under another provision, people convicted of drunk driving offenses that caused the death of a parent or guardian would have to pay child support until the child reaches adulthood.
Good time credit and St. Louis police measures removed
A House amendment that would have allowed nonviolent offenders to earn up to a year of “good time credit” toward their sentences for participating in educational or rehabilitative programs did not survive negotiations.
Democratic state Rep. Kimberly-Ann Collins of St. Louis, who sponsored the measure for the sixth year in a row, said it was removed because it was attached to another amendment that was taken out. That measure would have required the Missouri Department of Corrections to provide inmates with state-issued identification and records of their education or job training while incarcerated, to help them find employment upon release.
“If you all don’t want to hear me talk about that again on the floor, do not take it out of the bill,” Collins said.
During House debate on the bill last week, several St. Louis Democrats opposed an amendment that would have changed language in the law that placed the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department under state control last year.
The amendment sponsored by Republican state Rep. Brad Christ of St. Louis County, which was stripped out of the bill that passed Friday, would have absolved the new St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners of responsibility for the actions by the department before it was created.
Democratic state Rep. LaKeySha Bosley of St. Louis said that amendment would have ensured “that the city of St. Louis taxpayers were on the hook for any and all litigation.”
May told The Independent she is unhappy that a lack of consensus about budget flexibility for the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners resulted in the removal of a provision that would have allowed overtime pay for St. Louis police lieutenants.
Current law requires the Board of Police Commissioners to get the approval from the municipality before transferring funds within its budget. With days left in the legislative session, lawmakers failed to reach an agreement and removed all portions of Christ’s amendment — including overtime pay for lieutenants.
“They took all of it out, and I couldn’t understand that,” May said. “I was like, why do we do that? I said we should have left the lieutenants’ pay in there.”