Kansas City police explore extent of problems in child crimes unit

Kansas City police officials said Friday that an investigation into the department’s crimes against children unit was still in its early stages and the full extent of problems there was not yet known.

The internal investigation was announced Thursday when two sergeants and seven detectives in the unit were suspended. Police officials said they had learned cases were not being handled promptly enough according to department policies and public expectations.

It was unclear which cases the investigation would focus on, according to police.

Police Chief Darryl Forté said he has appointed an audit committee to examine how detectives and their supervisors managed cases of physical and sexual abuse cases involving children 16 and younger.

Issues of possible case mismanagement came to light in October and Forté said that compelled him to make inquiries. Officials learned the unit had accumulated a significant backlog of cases.

Police leadership imposed changes, moving new leadership and investigators into the unit. A commander, a sergeant and other detectives with experience investigating crimes against children have temporarily been assigned.

Officials would not say if a specific case or incident within the unit prompted the investigation.

“It had slowly accumulated and some checks and balances that we do have in place picked that up and started raising more concerns that there might be more to it,” Capt. Tye Grant, police spokesman, said Friday. “And more there that the system we have in place hadn’t picked up yet.”

The investigation will examine the status of caseloads and whether roadblocks delayed detectives in completing their assignments.

The eight-detective unit handled about 1,000 cases in 2015. It also investigates neglect, endangerment, parental kidnappings and custody violations.

“All investigations are difficult and definitely these involving children and youth tug at people’s hearts more than others,” Grant said. “We have a responsibility to the community, to these victims and to our community that we are doing these to the best of our abilities and the immediate concern would be is that what we were doing?

“And if we don’t feel like that was what we were doing, then we need to fix it and that is what we are trying to do right now.”

Forté did not say who is on the audit committee or when it would report its findings.

“As chief of police, I am ultimately responsible for ensuring employees adhere to policies as well as maintaining effective dialogue with all segments of our community,” Forté said Friday. “I will continue to make decisions that are in the best interest of the entire community, internal and external.”

Whether the investigation would focus on child abuse, or extend to neglect, endangerment and custody violations, remained unclear. But hundreds of child abuse reports are likely among the 1,000 cases worked by the unit last year.

At the Child Protection Center, where children from Jackson, Cass and Lafayette counties are brought to make formal statements about abuse, a large portion of the children come from Kansas City, according to the center.

Last year, 344 children and juveniles went to the center for forensic interviews about abuse incidents in Kansas City. The statements are recorded for possible use in a criminal investigation. The center saw 388 such cases from Kansas City in 2014 and 355 the year before.

Some advocates who work with abused children across the state said Kansas City police generally have a good reputation for investigating crimes against children, but that there had been talk of problems in recent months.

Emily van Schenkhof, with Missouri KidsFirst, said the Kansas City detectives she has worked with were generally hard-working. “They have integrity, they are committed and ethical,” she said. “These are hard jobs.”

She had heard of some “issues” in the crimes against children unit, but thought those were related to staffing needs and were being addressed.

“In general, the people I work with on the ground felt things were getting better,” van Schenkhof said. “It sounds like there is more to this than we knew.”

Lori Burns-Bucklew, a lawyer who has worked in family court in Kansas City, said the damage from abuse incidents can be compounded when a criminal investigation takes months or years.

Burns-Bucklew said she had seen cases where parents worked through the courts, taking classes and satisfying requirements to regain their children, only to be arrested months later for the same incident that had cost them their children in the first place.

One mother had just regained her children and put them back in school when she was arrested and jailed for two weeks for an incident that occurred more than a year earlier, Burns-Bucklew said.

“That completely disrupts everything she had done to put things together for the children,” Burns-Bucklew said. “It was ridiculous.”

This story was originally published January 29, 2016 at 6:11 PM with the headline "Kansas City police explore extent of problems in child crimes unit."