# Missouri

In Missouri the director of the Department of Public Safety licenses peace officers and disciplines licenses through the Administrative Hearing Commission, and the POST Commission sets training standards. Since 2023 the State has widened the grounds for license discipline, raised basic training to at least 600 hours, limited civilian review boards to listed powers, and made a revoked or surrendered license a cause to deny a new application.

Source: https://uscli.org/officer-certification-tracker/missouri

## At a glance

- **Certifying body:** The director of the Missouri Department of Public Safety (the POST program) licenses peace officers and disciplines licenses. The Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission sets minimum standards for basic training, continuing education, and instructors ([RSMo 590.010, 590.020, 590.030](https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=590.030), 590.080). No separate certifying body for sheriffs was found.
- **Statute:** [RSMo chapter 590](https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=590.010), 590.010 to 590.192: licensing, training, discipline, and records. Related: 590.502 (officer bill of rights), 590.653 (civilian review), 590.650 (racial profiling reports), and 590.1265 (use-of-force reporting). Rules are in 11 CSR 75: chapters 13 (licenses), 14 (basic training), and 15 (continuing education).
- **Minimum standards:** The director “shall” set minimum age, citizenship, and education requirements (high school or GED) and may require a passing licensing exam score. The POST Commission sets basic training hours, which since 2023 must be no lower than 600, with listed exceptions, including up to 1,000 hours for state agency licenses and as few as 120 for restricted reserve licenses ([590.040.1](https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=590.040)). Entrants to basic training “shall” submit fingerprints for state and FBI checks (590.060.3). Officers are fingerprinted and enrolled in state and federal Rap Back when commissioned (590.030). The director “shall have cause” to deny an application if facts would be cause to discipline a licensee, or, since August 28, 2026, if the applicant’s license or certification was revoked or surrendered (590.100).
- **Decertification:** The director “shall have cause to discipline” a licensee who: cannot perform with reasonable competency or safety; committed any criminal offense, charged or not; committed an act involving moral turpitude or reckless disregard for safety; misrepresented a material fact to obtain or keep a license; violated probation, chapter 590, or its rules; tested positive for a controlled substance without a prescription; is subject to another jurisdiction’s suspension or revocation; or committed gross misconduct ([590.080](https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=590.080)). The director “may” file a complaint with the Administrative Hearing Commission. If it finds cause, the director “shall” decide within 30 days whether to probate, suspend, or permanently revoke. Voluntary surrender is allowed. Agency heads must report commissioning and departures within 30 days, including whether the officer was under investigation, and must report known grounds for discipline (590.070).
- **Public decertification list:** No public list required. The name, license status, and commissioning or employing agency of applicants and licensees “shall be an open record.” Other director records on applicants and licensees are confidential, with listed exceptions ([590.180.2](https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=590.180)). Use-of-force data are published only in aggregate and by agency, with no officer identifiers (590.1265).
- **National Decertification Index:** None found. No section of RSMo chapter 590 and no rule in 11 CSR 75 chapters 13 to 18 names the Index. 590.080.2(8) makes another jurisdiction’s suspension or revocation a ground for discipline but does not name the Index.
- **Continuing training:** By rule, every licensed peace officer “is to obtain twenty four (24) hours” of continuing law enforcement education in each annual period, which runs January 1 to December 31 ([11 CSR 75-15.010](https://www.sos.mo.gov/cmsimages/adrules/csr/current/11csr/11c75-15.pdf)). By statute, officers who make traffic stops need 3 hours of racial profiling training per three-year period. From January 1, 2027 to December 31, 2031, every officer will need 2 hours of sex and human trafficking training each year ([590.050.1](https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=590.050), added by 2026 HB 2273).

## Changes, 2023 to 2026

- Aug 28, 2026 — **A revoked or surrendered license is cause to deny a new application** — 2026 HCS HB 1866, amending RSMo 590.100 (also 590.010 and 590.205) · Signed May 6, 2026; effective August 28, 2026 — New 590.100.2: the director “shall have cause to deny” an application for a peace officer license, or for entry into basic training, when the applicant had a peace officer license or certification that was revoked or surrendered. This covers Missouri licenses as well as those from elsewhere. Revocation elsewhere was already a cause to deny: since 2023 it has been a cause to discipline under 590.080.2(8), and 590.100.1 lets the director deny on any cause to discipline. The new subsection adds surrender, and reaches Missouri revocations and surrenders without a separate finding of cause to discipline. It is a cause to deny, not a bar: the director “may” still grant the application on probation, and a denial can be appealed to the Administrative Hearing Commission. — **For officers:** A license you surrendered, in Missouri or elsewhere, can now be used to deny a later application. — [HB 1866 (2026), truly agreed](https://documents.house.mo.gov/billtracking/bills261/hlrbillspdf/4736H.02T.pdf)[RSMo 590.100](https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=590.100)
- Aug 28, 2025 — **Fingerprint checks for basic training applicants now run through the Highway Patrol, with results to the director** — 2025 HCS SS SCS SB 71, amending RSMo 590.060.3 · Signed July 11, 2025; effective August 28, 2025 — Each person seeking entry into basic training “shall” submit fingerprints for a state and federal fingerprint-based check. The fingerprints go to the Highway Patrol’s central repository and on to the FBI. The Patrol “shall” notify the director of any criminal history found, or its absence, and all related records “shall be accessible and available to the director,” notwithstanding the closed-records law (610.120). Before, the applicant gave a fingerprint card and authorization to the training center, which ran the check and forwarded the report. — **For officers:** The director now sees your criminal history results directly, including closed records. — [SB 71 (2025), truly agreed](https://www.senate.mo.gov/25info/pdf-bill/tat/SB71.pdf)[RSMo 590.060](https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=590.060)
- Aug 28, 2025 — **Six hours on racial profiling, implicit bias, and de-escalation added to basic training, starting 2027** — 2025 SS#2 SCS HCS#2 HB 495, adding RSMo 590.040.4 · Signed March 26, 2025; effective August 28, 2025; applies to officers first licensed on or after August 28, 2027 — The basic training of every peace officer first licensed on or after August 28, 2027 “shall include” at least six hours on the prohibition against racial profiling: two hours of racial profiling training, two hours of implicit bias training, and two hours of de-escalation training. The act’s emergency clause does not cover this section. — **For officers:** Recruits licensed from late August 2027 will take the six-hour block in the academy. — [HB 495 (2025), truly agreed](https://documents.house.mo.gov/billtracking/bills251/hlrbillspdf/1623S.12T.pdf)[RSMo 590.040](https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=590.040)
- Aug 28, 2024 — **Civilian review boards limited to listed powers; broader oversight authority preempted** — 2024 SS#2 SCS SBs 754, 746, 788, 765, 841, 887 & 861, amending RSMo 590.653 · Effective August 28, 2024; the signing date could not be checked from official sources on October 19, 2026 — Since 2000, cities and counties could set up a civilian review board to receive, investigate, make findings, and recommend discipline on public complaints of excessive force, abuse of authority, discourtesy, or offensive language, with no finding based solely on an unsworn complaint. The act extends the section to a “division of civilian oversight” or other oversight entity, and says its power is “solely limited to” those listed powers. It adds that “Only the powers specifically granted herein are authorized,” and that any broader authority given to existing or future boards or entities is “expressly preempted and void as a matter of law.” — **For officers:** A local oversight body can investigate and recommend, but it cannot discipline you or use powers the statute does not list. — [SB 754 (2024), truly agreed](https://www.senate.mo.gov/24info/pdf-bill/tat/SB754.pdf)[RSMo 590.653](https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=590.653)
- Aug 28, 2023 — **Wider grounds to discipline licenses: off-duty conduct, unexplained positive drug tests, revocation elsewhere, gross misconduct** — 2023 CCS HCS SB 186, amending RSMo 590.080 · Effective August 28, 2023; the signing date could not be checked from official sources on October 19, 2026 — New definitions cover “gross misconduct,” “moral turpitude” (fraud, theft, bribery, illegal drug use, sexual misconduct, and similar acts), and “reckless disregard.” Ground (1) no longer requires that incompetence or unsafety result “from a mental condition, including alcohol or substance abuse.” Ground (2) already covered any criminal offense, charged or not; it now adds “whether or not” the officer was convicted, pleaded, or was sentenced, under the laws of any state, the United States, or any country. Ground (3) no longer limits moral turpitude or reckless disregard to acts “while on active duty or under color of law.” New grounds: (7) a positive controlled-substance test without a valid prescription, except as law or the Missouri Constitution provide; (8) being subject to another state’s, the federal government’s, or any licensing authority’s order suspending or revoking a peace officer license or certification; and (9) gross misconduct showing inability to function as an officer. — **For officers:** Off-duty conduct and a revocation in another state can now put your Missouri license at risk. — [SB 186 (2023), truly agreed](https://www.senate.mo.gov/23info/pdf-bill/tat/SB186.pdf)[RSMo 590.080](https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=590.080)
- Aug 28, 2023 — **Basic training floor raised to 600 hours** — 2023 CCS HCS SB 186, amending RSMo 590.040.1 · Effective August 28, 2023; the signing date could not be checked from official sources on October 19, 2026 — The POST Commission “shall” set basic training hours for licensure “no lower than six hundred.” The former range, no lower than 470 and no higher than 600, is deleted. The exceptions are unchanged. — **For officers:** New recruits need at least 600 hours of basic training. — [SB 186 (2023), truly agreed](https://www.senate.mo.gov/23info/pdf-bill/tat/SB186.pdf)[RSMo 590.040](https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=590.040)

## Not yet in force and pending

- **Human trafficking training, January 1, 2027:** 2026 HB 2273 requires 2 hours of sex and human trafficking continuing education per year from January 1, 2027 to December 31, 2031. [RSMo 590.050](https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=590.050)
- **Basic training on racial profiling, August 28, 2027:** the six-hour block from 2025 HB 495 applies to officers first licensed on or after this date (see above). [RSMo 590.040](https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=590.040)

Only enacted acts amending chapter 590 were reviewed. No enacted 2023–2026 act on officer face coverings or visible identification was found; introduced bills on those subjects were not searched.

## Checked and unchanged

- RSMo 590.070 (agency reports on commissioning and departures), 590.180 (open records), 590.502 (officer bill of rights), 590.1265 (use-of-force reporting), and 590.030 (Rap Back): no 2023–2026 amendments.
- 11 CSR 75 chapters 13 to 18: the latest amendments shown in the current rule texts took effect in 2021 or earlier. The 24-hour continuing education rule (75-15.010) was last amended effective April 30, 2021.
- Not counted: 2023 SB 186’s 40-hour course for new police chiefs (590.033) and tuition reimbursement (590.1070, 590.1075); amendments to 590.192 (critical incident stress and mental health check-ins) in 2024 SB 754 and 2026 HB 2372; and 2026 HB 1866’s change letting any school district or charter school employee be a school protection officer.