Boone County prosecutor weighs in on Kehoe’s proposal on juvenile crime
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A Missouri House and Senate bill are being considered in legislative committees with goals of curbing juvenile crime.
This comes after Gov. Mike Kehoe gave his State of the State address Tuesday, which highlighted plans for state income tax, budget and public safety.
"Violent crime committed by juveniles has reached a concerning level in Missouri," Kehoe said. "Our juvenile justice system was designed to rehabilitate young people who make mistakes, but it was never meant to be a revolving door for repeat offenders who pose a real danger to the public."
In January, a 17-year-old was arrested after police claimed he fired shots inside Dick’s Sporting Goods in the Shoppes at Stadium area, later leading sheriff's deputies on a chase in Pettis county.
The summer of 2025 also led to several juvenile arrests after the death of a 16-year-old in May and 18-year-old in June.
Kehoe alluded to two bills during his speech, House Bill 2498, sponsored by State Rep. Brad Christ (R-St. Louis) and Senate Bill 888, sponsored by Sen. Nick Schroer (R-St. Charles).
Both bills will allow county prosecutors who have evidence to request a hearing to prosecute a juvenile as an adult. Currently, juvenile judges typically decide how a juvenile offender is prosecuted.
According to Boone County Prosecutor Roger Johnson, if a juvenile commits a crime that would be considered a felony if committed by an adult, they typically are already set to be certified and prosecuted as an adult.
"I don't know that it would change things in some of the most violent offenses because those cases are going to be presented to the judge for certification anyway," Johnson said. "It would get us involved earlier on in the process of working on those cases."
Johnson highlighted two unique parts of the House bill. One section looks to add juvenile criminal history to the state's crime records.
Johnson described the State's Juvenile Office's records and criminal histories as a "black box," and that the office and county courts work in separate systems.
"Currently, we don't have access to that. But under these proposals, we would," Johnson said.
Johnson added the additional information could help with court filing.
"We have 16 attorneys, and so we have limited resources. In a lot of cases, we have to decide where we're going to focus our resources and we try to focus our resources on repeat offenders and violent offenders," Johnson said, "Were we to have information about juveniles who've been a continual problem over time, that'll help us know that that's a case that we really need to focus on."
The House bill also proposes holding the parents and guardians of repeat juvenile offenders accountable by charging parents who fail to control the child or encourage the child in committing crimes with endangering the welfare of a child. Johnson said it would be a new way to hold parents accountable.
"We've had situations where parents are antagonizing their juveniles to fight, we've had cases where they're driving them to fights. We've even had cases where parents are giving juveniles a gun to go out and commit a crime," Johnson said.
He added cases under this possible charge could be complicated, and he expects offices to have discretion if parents need to be evaluated in the future.
"Our job is not just to try to lock people up, it's to try to pursue justice and so in a case like that, we would have to look at it and make sure that what we're doing really is fair," Johnson said.
Johnson also voiced an overall need for long-term investment in the state's juvenile system, if the general assembly is looking to manage more juvenile offenders.
"Our juvenile facility, in particular, was just developed at a time when the juvenile landscape was much different," Johnson said. "Now, instead of having people in the juvenile system, or housed there who maybe were vandals, we're talking about housing people there who were committing shooting cases or homicides."
He adds that current facilities sometimes have design limitations and lack space for housing several suspects or groups who may be violent toward one another. Johnson also reports that job retention and recruitment are issues in the juvenile office.
"My guess is that we would see more results with investment of resources under the juvenile system rather than necessarily some of the statutory changes," Johnson said. "Not to say that the statutory changes might not be helpful or might be a bad idea, but I think really to make significant change in this area, we're going to have to invest resources into the juvenile system."
