Public Safety Director Speaks in Shelbina
By Marlana Smith
The Shelby County Republican Club held its annual Lincoln Day event at the Shelby County Senior Center in Shelbina on Saturday, February 21, 2026, beginning at 6:00 p.m. A soup supper was offered, and donations were accepted to go towards scholarships for the local students.
Myrna Schroy welcomed those in attendance. Troy Dawkins led in the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem. Paul von Thun delivered the invocation prior to the meal.
Local and state elected officials, along with those running for a position had the chance to address those in attendance. Lexie Runge, candidate for Recorder of Deeds, and Mariah Jones, candidate for Collector, both spoke. Dusty Blue, who is running for State Senate, also delivered remarks.
The featured speaker was Mark S. James, Director of the Missouri Department of Public Safety. The department oversees the Highway Patrol, Capitol Police, alcohol and tobacco control, fire safety, SEMA, the Veterans Commission, and the Gaming Commission.
James said Governor Mike Kehoe made public safety a top priority upon taking office.
“When Governor Kehoe was elected governor a year ago, the most important point of his platform was to make a safer Missouri. He felt like if the perception, the culture, the reality of the state of Missouri is not safe, how do you go about recruiting businesses and industries to relocate to Missouri? How do you have a driving economy and what have you, if you had crime running rampant?”
“I got the tap on the shoulder by the Governor to help him make that a realization in the state of Missouri,” James stated.
On his first day in office, Kehoe signed six executive orders outlining a multiphase, pro-law enforcement plan aimed at reducing violent crime, strengthening the police profession and enhancing public safety through executive action, increased funding and legislation.
One initiative under the Safer Missouri strategy is Operation Relentless Pursuit, modeled after efforts James observed while serving as a United States Marshal targeting federal fugitives.
James said Missouri had more than 17,000 serious felony fugitives, excluding failure-to-appear and minor offenses.
“These are murderers, robbers, assaults, drug dealers — serious felony offenses,” he said.
Nine teams were formed, each including Missouri State Highway Patrol investigators and county deputy sheriffs representing the nine patrol troop areas. The teams were trained by the U.S. Marshals Service and began operations April 7, 2025.
Since that date, James said the teams have arrested 1,317 fugitives, cleared 2,248 felony warrants and seized 82 firearms. Among those arrested were 14 individuals wanted for murder, including one who had been in hiding in Missouri since 2009.
Another initiative is the Blue Shield program, a grant program rewarding communities that demonstrate support for local law enforcement agencies. Communities that meet the criteria become eligible for a $50,000 grant to support their departments.
So far, 201 communities have earned the Blue Shield designation, including more than half of Missouri’s counties and 137 cities. Funds have been used for mobile data terminals, body cameras, license plate readers, ballistic vests, radios and vehicles.
Another component of the safer Missouri plan of the Governor’s was the Blue Scholarship Program.
The Blue Scholarship Program addresses law enforcement recruitment challenges. The program pays $6,000 in tuition directly to law enforcement academies for qualifying recruits. Last year, 420 scholarships were awarded.
Another big, important piece, for James personally, having been a former highway patrolman, it pained him to see that the patrol had gotten away, to some extent, from being the tough law enforcement agency, that it had once been.
“We changed the patrol’s pursuit policy. Those troopers now will pursue you,” James said. “The goal is to stop those pursuits before they become excessively dangerous.”
The patrol has also created a specialized Strategic Traffic Operations and Rapid Mobilization (STORM) team trained in interdiction and supported by air resources.
James highlighted House Bill 495, an omnibus crime bill passed last year, which included returning the St. Louis Police Department to a state-appointed board. The bill also made street takeovers and “slideshows” criminal offenses.
Senate Bill 71, the Public Safety Recruitment and Retention Act signed July 25, 2025, covers 100% of tuition for public safety personnel pursuing college degrees in exchange for service commitments within Missouri.
“It does require years of service, individuals must stay in Missouri, give back as a police officer or public safety. It’s not just police officers, but this is another of the important initiatives to build the law enforcement profession,” James stated.
For 2026, the department is working on what James called “Safer Missouri 2.0,” focusing on increasing criminal investigative support to local and county agencies.
Plans include expanding the Missouri Digital Forensic Center, which specializes in extracting evidence from computers and phones, and increasing staffing for the patrol’s Special Victims Unit to address child exploitation and human trafficking.
“I’m sad to say, we’re in the middle of the country. We have the 7th largest highway system in the nation that comes through here. We are a hub for human trafficking and child exploitation. It is a terrible thing, and that’s why we’re calling this Operation Save Our Children,” James expressed.
The department is also seeking funding to add seven full-time positions to the Highway Patrol crime lab to reduce analysis turnaround times. The patrol crime lab serves all of the state.
“It is ranked one of the top crime labs in the nation when it comes to the quality of work they do, but it’s one of the lower labs in the nation in terms of the time it takes for them to do the analysis, because they’ve been so shorthanded,” James stated.
This year they are working to protect Missouri from criminal use of unmanned aerial vehicles. It’s a counter drone unit.
“You can turn the news on every evening and watch what’s going on between Russia and Ukraine. They’re fighting a war with drones,” James stated. “The drones are already showing up around the world as a tool of the trade for terrorism and criminals.”
James said they are in the process of receiving a federal grant that will buy them some very sophisticated technological equipment that can be used to detect drones, track them, figure out where they came from, and if need be, if they believe they’re being used or going to be used in a crime or terrorism, they can bring those things down.
Another initiative they are pursuing is protecting Missouri through criminal information analysis and terrorism intelligence.
The State of Missouri has a 24/7 intelligence analysis center called the MOMIAC: Missouri Information, Analysis Center. It is staffed with analysts who receive information and queries all day and night long.
“They’re pushing more and more responsibilities out on the state, so we’re asking for some appropriations this year to make sure we can keep those people on the payroll, otherwise we are not a 24/7 operation,” James explained.
Another piece is strengthening Missouri’s disaster preparedness, an emergency management capability. They want to create something called the Missouri Emergency Management Assistance Compact, or MeMac.
“Just last year, we had five presidentially declared disasters, including the tornado in St. Louis. We were calling and using resources from within the state, fire departments, strike teams, and so forth to come and help manage this thing, and it was protracted. It exceeded mutual aid. This thing was getting into days and even weeks,” James expressed.
“This will create a fund that if we’re going to call on departments to come, to the rescue of other communities, and they’re going to have to stay there quite some time, or expend quite a bit of resources, that we can make them whole.”
Another important piece of their plan is a partnership with the Attorney General’s Office, and that is the violent juvenile crime reduction strategy.
“We have a bill, it passed the House and is now over in the Senate,” James continued, “This will fix what has become a real problem of revolving door when it comes to violent juvenile criminals.
James answered questions from attendees.
The evening concluded with an auction led by South Shelby students Peyson Larrick and Caden Stevenson, with Larrick serving as auctioneer.
