Business, civic groups offer suggestions on Kansas City police — but not local control
The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City released three recommendations Wednesday regarding the Kansas City Police Department.
But the groups did not call for local control of the department, a chief goal for several advocates of police reform, including Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas.
“We’re going to continue to examine that issue,” said Marc Hill, president of the Civic Council. “We’ve focused today on recommendations that are near term and immediate things we can work on and actually impact right now. We recognize that that question of control requires a state law change, which may be a longer term effort.”
KCPD answers not to the Kansas City Council, but to the Board of Kansas City Police Commissioners, whose members are appointed by the Missouri governor. State control of the KCPD is frequently cited by advocates for police reform as an impediment to accountability and making changes to the way the police department operates.
The chamber and Civic Council said they conducted 35 meetings and 14 listening sessions with community organizations, prosecutors and law enforcement sources before reaching their three initial recommendations.
“When you have some parts of our community that are spending a lot of focus and energy on contending with violent crime, it holds all of us back,” Hill said.
The first recommendation calls for independent investigations of KCPD in each instance of excessive use of force and complaints from the public.
KCPD currently invites outside law enforcement — primarily the Missouri Highway Patrol — to investigate when officers shoot someone.
Complaints from the public are handled by the Office of Community Complaints, which critics have said is ineffective. And Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker has been critical of KCPD leadership’s refusal at times to hand over to her office probable cause statements, a key document outlining the details of an alleged offense, when a police officer is suspected of a crime.
The chamber and Civic Council said they have concerns that KCPD leadership, including Chief Rick Smith, become aware early on of the details of complaints against the department and can influence the Office of Community Complaints.
“Based on broad citizen dissatisfaction with current lack of transparency and trust in fairness of the investigatory process and based on a long, historic demand from citizens for more fairness in police investigations, it is time for real change,” the chamber and Civic Council said in a statement.
They suggested that any independent review of complaints or excessive use of force reports be made not to KCPD, but to the Board of Police Commissioners.
The chamber and Civic Council’s second recommendation was that City Hall and the Board of Police Commissioners “should engage in dialogue, rather than litigation” to resolve disputes.
The police commission is suing the Kansas City Council and other top City Hall officials over two ordinances passed by a majority of the Kansas City Council in May. The ordinances call for City Hall and police to negotiate how a portion of the money KCPD receives from the city — about 18% — is spent.
The Kansas City Council approves the KCPD budget, but has little influence over how the money is spent. When the two ordinances passed, the police commission responded with a lawsuit alleging that the city overstepped its authority. That lawsuit is pending.
The chamber and Civic Council’s third recommendation was that any vacancies on the Board of Police Commissioners be filled by new members who “reflect the racial, ethnic and geographic diversity of the community KCPD serves.”
The appointment of commissioners is up to Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, who is a former sheriff of Polk County.
There’s currently a vacancy on the Board of Police Commissioners after Nathan Garrett, a lawyer and former law enforcement official, stepped down in June after moving outside of Kansas City.
The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 99, the collective bargaining unit for rank-and-file KCPD employees, said it reviewed and appreciated the recommendations from the chamber and Civic Council.
In a statement, the FOP said the recommendations come at a time when KCPD is short-staffed, despite a $272.9 million budget in 2021.
“The FOP looks forward to finding solutions to these problems within the KCPD,” the statement said, “which can only be resolved with a collaborative effort involving the community, the Department and the FOP.”
This story was originally published July 14, 2021 at 3:55 PM.
