Who should execute search warrants for animal control? Chief Smith says it’s not KCPD
Kansas City’s police chief says his officers won’t be part of executing search warrants involving abused animals. The city’s mayor says the department has a duty to be there.
Chief Rick Smith, in a Feb. 8 letter to municipal judges Artie Bland and Todd Wilcher, said that he had just learned that search warrants were being issued for the animal services division of KC Pet Project (KCPP).
“I have grave concerns in regards to KCPD being authorized to initiate, execute, or assist in the execution of any search warrants pursuant to Chapter 14 ordinance violations,” he wrote, referring to animal welfare laws. “Further, I am notifying you that until the concerns of safety and authority are resolved and in the interest of safety for everyone, KCPD will not initiate, execute, or provide assistance in the execution of any such search warrants.”
Mayor Quinton Lucas, later learning of the letter, rebutted, arguing that the city’s current code of ordinances mandates that police help execute animal control operations.
Nothing changed, he added, when the city’s contract with KCPP was modified in 2020.
In 2017, the city proposed replacing KCPP’s dilapidated animal shelter as part of its $800 million bond package. This included the construction of a new shelter at Swope Park, funded by $10 million in private donations and $14 million in taxpayer money.
In 2020, with an impressive new shelter in place, City Council voted to privatize animal control services, authorizing KCPP to assume those duties for the city.
By December of that year, KCPP had fully gained control from the KCMO Animal Health and Public Safety Division.
The pet project went on to hire numerous animal services and resource officers “focused on enforcing animal cruelty and neglect laws while upholding animal ordinances,” a KCPP news release said at the time.
But now the question of who should execute search warrants is a matter of contention between Lucas and Smith.
After a lengthy debate at Tuesday’s Board of Police Commissioner’s meeting, the chief and mayor again faced off during a Thursday budget hearing.
“I think the idea of the police going in and searching residents for pets or intrusion in someone’s house for a pet ... I don’t think that would go well with the city,” Smith said, later adding that going into a private residence presents its own challenges and safety concerns for officers and for the community.
Lucas said by not complying, the department is violating chapter 14, which states that warrants “shall be executed with the assistance of the police.”
“I don’t know why we need to beg further for the laws of Kansas City, Missouri, to be enforced,” Lucas told Smith, adding that by not cooperating with animal control investigations, the department is allowing “very real threats to the public continue to exist.”
Smith said that in the past, KCPD would show up to keep the peace at the request of animal control. But he said they have never served warrants for animal control because they are administrative warrants — warrants issued to enforce housing, zoning, health or safety ordinances.
When animal control applies for a warrant at the municipal court level, the department has nothing to do with it, he said, adding that he doesn’t even know if animal control’s probable cause standards are the same as KCPD’s.
“I think you’re putting the police department in a horrible position that’s going to do nothing but cost the city money, legally,” he said.
Tori Fugate, a spokeswoman for KCPP, said she would get back to The Star regarding questions about the change in who is asked to execute warrants and whether KCPD refusing to do so inhibits KCPP in any way.
“Due to the seriousness of the cases in which we would request a warrant, our hope is that the municipal court will continue to work with our team to issue the warrants to ensure public safety and that those who commit cruel and violent against pets in our community are held accountable,” said Tori Fugate, a spokeswoman for KCPP.
Benita Jones, a spokeswoman for the municipal court, said the judges addressed in the letter from Smith declined to give interviews, or to speak on the warrant. Instead, Jones referred The Star to chapter 14, adding that “all judges of the municipal division act within the bounds and constraints of City ordinances and of their offices.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 1:12 PM.
