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ST. LOUIS, Missouri: As the murder rate rises in St. Louis, the state legislature is moving towards taking over the city’s police force.

St. Louis only regained control over its police force ten years ago, having been taken over by the state during the US Civil War in the 1860s.

However, observers are doubtful whether the state can gain control over the violence that plagues St. Louis.

Throughout Missouri’s history, St. Louis and Kansas City saw their police departments supervised by state boards appointed largely by governors. St. Louis regained control of the city’s police department in 2013.

Kansas City, however, chose to continue state control over its police force.

Still, since 2014 Kansas city has seen a yearly increase of homicides of 6.7 percent, with more than 150 murders per year for the past four years.

Meanwhile, homicide rates in St. Louis, long higher than in Kansas City, have jumped an annual 8.2 percent, with over 190 deaths annually for the past four years.

Even when both cities were supervised by the state there were increases in homicides in the 1990s.

The move to return St. Louis’ police force to state control comes as some state lawmakers have said that local police control has been a failure in St. Louis.

In March, the Republican-led state House approved a bill to authorize GOP Gov. Mike Parson to appoint four St. Louis police board commissioners. St Louis mayor, Democrat Tishaura O. Jones, would sit on the board as the fifth commissioner.

The Republican-led Senate will take up the plan shortly.

However, Jones said the takeover of the police department “isn’t about public safety.”

“This is about power and politics,” she said. “If you look at all of the cities where we are facing control or overarching authority over local law enforcement, what’s the trend? They’re all led by Black mayors,” according to the Associated Press.

Additionally, Missouri state legislators are weighing a bill to allow the state to take over prosecution of violent crimes in St. Louis.

Supporting the state taking control of St. Louis police, Republican state Rep. Brad Christ of suburban St. Louis County said increasing amounts of money could be directed to increasing patrols and adding more officers on the streets if the state supervises the St. Louis police.

“Is this going to fix crime?” Christ asked rhetorically. “Is it going to go from 200 homicides to zero? No. But this is the start … to build the police department back to where it actually needs to be to put a crime plan in place and actually address crime,” as quoted by the Associated Press.