Missouri
Every law and rule change USCLI tracks for Missouri, across the professions, on one page. Each entry links to its full write-up and official sources.
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Licensing Law Tracker
Missouri licenses private investigators, private fire investigators, their agencies, and agency investigator employees through a board in the Division of Professional Registration. A 2026 law renames that board and adds professional surety bail bond agents to it.
Full Missouri page: every change, its sources, and what has not changed (9 entries).
Temporary license for experienced applicants from states that do not license
New RSMo 324.004 applies to any Missouri board or agency that issues occupational or professional licenses, and does not exclude private investigators. A person with at least three years of work experience in a state or the District of Columbia that does…
Board renamed and expanded to license bail bond agents
The public safety bill amends RSMo 324.1100, 324.1102, 324.1103, 324.1105, 324.1116 and 324.1134 and moves the licensing of professional surety bail bond agents from the Department of Commerce and Insurance to the renamed Board of Private Investigators,…
Agency employees with an active license can change agencies without reapplying
A new application is now required only when an agency investigator employee without an active license moves to a different agency. An employee who holds an active license instead files a Change in Agency Affiliation form and a Verification by…
New crime of tracking a vehicle without the owners’ consent, with no exception for investigators
Enacted RSMo 565.260. A person commits unlawful tracking of a motor vehicle by knowingly installing, concealing, or placing an electronic tracking device in or on a motor vehicle without the consent of all owners of the vehicle, for the purpose of…
Repeating a continuing education course now needs board approval
Private investigators and agency investigator employees may not take the same course in consecutive cycles without a written request to the board that gives the reason for repeating it. The amendment also restates the reporting cycles as March 1 to…
Officer Certification Tracker
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.
Full Missouri page: every change, its sources, and what has not changed (6 entries).
A revoked or surrendered license is cause to deny a new application
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…
Fingerprint checks for basic training applicants now run through the Highway Patrol, with results to the director
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…
Six hours on racial profiling, implicit bias, and de-escalation added to basic training, starting 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…
Civilian review boards limited to listed powers; broader oversight authority preempted
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…
Wider grounds to discipline licenses: off-duty conduct, unexplained positive drug tests, revocation elsewhere, gross misconduct
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…
Forensic Science Tracker
Missouri has a standing Crime Laboratory Review Commission and requires a crime lab to be accredited before its reports or testimony are used in state court. It has no analyst license and has not adopted the 2023 change to Federal Rule 702. Since 2023 the State has moved prosecutor motions to vacate to the jurisdiction where charges were filed, authorized an optional, advisory conviction review unit, and opened wrongful-conviction compensation to people exonerated without DNA.
Full Missouri page: every change, its sources, and what has not changed (2 entries).
Wrongful-conviction compensation no longer limited to DNA exonerations
The act struck “solely as a result of DNA profiling analysis” from the eligibility rule. A qualifying finding of innocence may now come from “an evidentiary hearing and finding in a habeas corpus proceeding or a proceeding held pursuant to section…
Motions to vacate go where charges were filed; a conviction review unit is authorized
Under 547.031.1, the prosecutor who may file, and the court that hears, a motion to vacate are now those in the jurisdiction “in which charges were filed,” not where the person was convicted. Nothing else in the section changed. New 547.500 says the…
Last updated October 19, 2026Source: United States Council for Law & Investigation