Funds for DA’s police misconduct investigative unit approved in Wyandotte County
The Wyandotte County Board of Commissioners approved funding Thursday night for an investigative unit in the District Attorney’s Office to look into complaints of police misconduct.
The unit, which Wyandotte District Attorney Mark Dupree announced plans for last month, is an expansion of the existing conviction integrity unit in the county.
While approving the county’s budget at a board meeting Thursday night, county leaders allocated $48,000 in 2020 and $165,000 in 2021 to fund one and a half positions in Dupree’s office.
The current half time investigator in the Conviction Integrity Unit would become full-time and one additional investigator will be hired. Both investigators will be law enforcement officers, Dupree said in an interview last month.
After some discussion, the board approved the unit unanimously.
Commissioners Melissa Bynum, Jane Philbrook and Mike Kane, said that they were unsure the unit should be placed in the District Attorney’s office and suggested funding the unit and then determining where it would be placed.
“Is there a place more appropriate within our government for the placement of this unit?” Bynum said during the board meeting.
Some commissioners also expressed concerns that the unit was proposed last month, late in the budget process and did not allow enough time for discussion.
Commissioners Gayle Townsend and Harold Johnson said the unit should stay in Dupree’s office because of its role in law enforcement.
“There is a precedence that we see around the country that these types of units are often housed in the DA or the prosecuting attorney’s office,” Johnson said.
Townsend said the community had already made it clear that they expected the funds to go to Dupree’s office.
“Several years ago he came forward with the Conviction Integrity Unit and we did some of the same things second guessing him about what it was for and the need even though we appropriated the money,” Townsend said.
Ultimately, the funding was approved and allocated to the District Attorney’s office.
The Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity call the funding a victory in a statement Friday. The organization circulated a petition urging the funding of the unit, which gained 153 signatures.
The organization also encouraged residents to speak at a public hearing on the budget Monday.
“We’re overjoyed and see this as a first step towards justice for many victims, like John Keith Calvin, who’s still in prison today for a crime he did not commit,” Rev. Rick Behrens, pastor of Grandview Park Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, KS and co-chair of the MORE2 board of directors., said in the statement
Structure of unit
Dupree announced his plans to create the unit in a news conference last month, he originally proposed the unit be made of three investigators, rather than two.
The unit, he said would be an independent arm of his office to investigate accusations of excessive force or misconduct by officers.
“If we are to really bring about systematic change, we must change the systems that have allowed the act of a few bad to go unseen and unchanged,” Dupree told reporters at the time.
The office will run a bilingual complaint hotline. Those who file complaints, Dupree said last month, will be asked to come into his office and sign a formal complaint form.
Dupree’s investigators will then work with the relevant law enforcement agency to investigate the complaint. If the complaint rises to the level of felony, Dupree said, it will be referred to an outside law enforcement agency. Dupree’s office would focus solely on misdemeanor level complaints and findings of investigations would be turned over to the law enforcement agency for administrative reviews.
The unit, Dupree said last month, is a step towards holding systems accountable and ensuring they work for people of every race.
“The reality is that there has been a lack of transparency and a lack of trust specifically dealing with people of color in this country and this county,” Dupree said. “What we must do is change systems that allow racism to run rampant in our communities.”
This story was originally published July 17, 2020 at 11:06 AM.
