KCPD missed chance to seek witness protection money, Jackson County prosecutor says
Kansas City police detectives have had to use their own money to relocate witnesses during murder investigations because there is no true witness protection program in Missouri, according to a recent assessment of the department’s homicide unit.
The detectives were responding to the need to help witnesses leave the area or temporarily stay in hotels for their safety, according to the assessment report, which was conducted by a retired Los Angeles homicide detective and a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney.
The report comes as Kansas City is on pace to have one of its deadliest years, pushing closer to its record of 153, set in 1993. The city has recorded 141 killings so far this year, according to data kept by The Star, which includes police shootings.
The authors made several recommendations in a 12-page report, produced as part of the federal National Public Safety Partnership. They suggested the department increase its number of homicide detectives and crime analysts, implement standardized report writing and file organization as well as create a 90-day progress report and a supervisory review process for open cases.
The report proposed a pay incentive for detectives. It also noted the department does not staff a cold case homicide squad.
It said Jackson County and Missouri must implement and sufficiently fund formal witness protection and relocation protocols.
In an interview with The Star, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said the lack of funding for witness protection and relocation was “an obvious hole.”
“We’ve put people on Greyhound to get them out of here,” Baker said. “But that is like a patchwork that we are putting together and we don’t have any holistic approach.”
At the urging of the federal government, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office submitted a grant earlier this year for $1 million for victim witness assistance and relocation.
Had the Kansas City Police Department been willing to join the prosecutor’s office in applying for and administering the grant, the office could have applied for $2 million, but the department declined, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Dan Nelson wrote in a September memo, which was obtained through a Sunshine Law request.
“I fear we likely left money on the table,” Nelson wrote.
The prosecutor’s office’s proposal would have included assigning a police officer to witness protection duties. Baker said not every witness needed to be relocated, but rather a security system could be put in their home.
The office did not receive the grant. Baker said her office would have preferred for the police department to be part of the application.
“Even without them, we weren’t going to give up,” she said.
Capt. Tim Hernandez, a spokesman for the police department, said he could not comment on the application because he was not familiar with it. But he said Police Chief Rick Smith has been in discussion with Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s office about possibly securing state funds for a witness support program.
“It is something that we want to do,” Hernandez said. “But we still need to find funding for the program of this sort.”
Homicide assessment
The homicide assessment report was written in May after the authors — retired detective John Skaggs and District Deputy Attorney John Colello — came to Kansas City in late April. Evaluators determined detectives and prosecutors in the region care deeply about solving violent crime, but police could make changes that would help close more homicides.
The report authors said they don’t recommend going without witness protection and relocation protocols. Prosecutors and investigators, they wrote, can’t expect witnesses to risk their lives by cooperating during investigations and then taking the stand “without reasonable and relatively basic protection protocols.”
The authors of the report provided examples of funding for such a program, including community donations and asset forfeiture funds. They stressed the importance of petitioning for such an official program because cases often can’t be proved without witnesses.
“The whole idea is their safety is imperative,” Baker said. “We want them to tell us what they know, but we have got to wrap our arms around them and show them that it’s OK to do that because we are going to protect them.”
California, the report noted, has had a Witness Relocation and Assistance Program since 1997, which is annually funded with millions of dollars and lets detectives and prosecutors relocate witnesses for their safety. It allows for reimbursement for basic living expenses and new identity costs, among other things, according to the report.
Skaggs and Colello also suggested eliminating the need for suspects to sign a Miranda waiver if an interview is recorded. Detectives should instead use implied waivers, which would decrease the chance of a suspect not cooperating, the authors said.
The police department has already made some of the recommended changes, including dropping the Miranda waivers.
Chief Smith last month announced the department had disbanded the mounted patrol unit and, as a result, eight additional officers were to be assigned to the homicide unit. Smith referenced the assessment report in making the decision to disband the unit.
The department is still evaluating all of the recommendations, Hernandez said. Police officials are trying to find a crime analyst to add to the homicide unit. One currently responds to homicide scenes, but the person is assigned to the law enforcement resource unit and works throughout the department, he said.
Hernandez said police officers, including homicides detectives, frequently use their own money to help individuals.
Authors of the report noted they were impressed by many aspects of how detectives conduct homicide investigations in the city. Kansas City detectives, it added, receive more training than most homicide detectives.
This story was originally published December 3, 2019 at 5:00 AM with the headline "KCPD missed chance to seek witness protection money, Jackson County prosecutor says."
