‘Loophole’ prevents campus cops from enforcing law

Originally published February 28, 2013 at 2:38 a.m., updated February 28, 2013 at 6:27 a.m.

A “loophole” in current state law keeps some Missouri college and university police officers from enforcing state laws on campus streets, state Sen. Brad Lager said Wednesday.

He wants the Legislature to change that this year, as it did for the University of Missouri police several years ago.

“What is starting to happen is,” Lager, R-Savannah, told the Senate’s Transportation Committee, “they’ve had cases where university officers do a traffic stop, they encounter an individual who is intoxicated, they make the arrest on DUI and go through the process, only for the case to be thrown out later in court — because there’s this loophole that doesn’t clearly state that a (certified) university police officer has the ability to enforce state laws.”

Lager emphasized the law would cover only campus police who have completed their POST training, which is a certification program required of most Missouri law officers.

The committee took no action on the bill Wednesday.

Correction: The original version of Sen. Lager's quotation characterizing the loophole contradicted itself because of a reporter's transcription error. The wording has since been corrected.

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JCLifer 3 months, 2 weeks ago

How much power do cops need?

Should campus cops have authority to enforce school, city, county, state, and federal laws?

Maybe we don't really need all these levels of law enforcement. Just have one classification for all entities. Combine law enforcement with the military and let them enforce whatever laws they think they need to enforce, where ever they think they need to enforce them.

connor 3 months, 2 weeks ago

We certainly do not need campus security becoming cops. Of course that boat has already sailed and they now call themselves police and act like police but they are even less responsive to the people than actual police. Without even an elected mayor or police commissioner overseeing them just a board or appointed President.

The real Constitutional law enforcement is the sheriff and only the sheriff.

JCsleeper 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Then they could play speed trap cops, too.

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