‘Who loses in this is us taxpayers’: KC activists react to police budget ruling
On Wednesday morning, Ron Hunt stood outside the Kansas City Police Department expressing frustration with a ruling rejecting the City Council’s plan to reallocate millions in funding for the police department.
“I think who loses in this is us taxpayers,” said Hunt, 50, who sits on the board of the Blue Hills Neighborhood Association.
Hunt was among the city’s residents and activists who reacted to Judge Patrick Campbell’s decision, which came down Tuesday.
In May, the City Council approved two ordinances orchestrated by Mayor Quinton Lucas that cut the police budget back to 20% of the city’s general fund, the minimum required by state law. It placed about $42 million in a separate fund with its use up to City Manager Brian Platt and police commissioners to negotiate.
Under the plan, the city would reallocate the money to a newly formed “Community Services and Prevention Fund.”
The Board of Police Commissioners filed a lawsuit in Jackson County Circuit Court after the city council approved the measure.
Critics of the plan have tried to frame this reduction as “defunding the police” despite the ordinances calling for Platt to negotiate with KCPD and no other city department.
Urban League of Greater Kansas City president Gwen Grant alleged in a court filing that the current policing structure is a “Taxation Without Representation” scheme.
Grant maintained Wednesday that requiring the city to appropriate funds beyond what is required by state law violates the rights of Kansas City’s taxpayers.
“We are currently evaluating appellate and other options with respect to the Board’s lawsuit against the City,” Grant said in a statement.
Lora McDonald, executive director of MORE2, said Wednesday she would tell Lucas to appeal the judge’s ruling. Lucas, in a statement after the ruling, said the city would weigh its options going forward, including the possibility of an appeal.
KCPD is a city department and gets most of its funding from city taxpayers. But the department is overseen by the Board of Police Commissioners. Four of the board’s five members are appointed by Missouri’s governor, while the city’s mayor is guaranteed the fifth seat.
McDonald said she doesn’t think that that is true democracy.
“The people that we elected in this democracy, at least for nine of those seats, have zero say in the single biggest line item resource in our budget. And they have no say in the thing that is impacting human lives and public safety in our whole city,” McDonald said. “We’re in a quandary, and I don’t know if it’s gonna be, you know, court action, public outcry. We’re trying every strategy we could find to restore a democracy in the city over our police department.”
Lucas said Tuesday in a statement that the court’s decision will provide a path forward for the city to require the police department to engage in discussions related to crime prevention in future budget cycles.
In the past week, there has been several shootings that have led to injuries and deaths. On Saturday afternoon, officers responded to a triple homicide in the area of 27th street and Spruce Avenue. On Tuesday, three people were shot in the area of East 50th Street and Prospect Avenue. Two of those shot are in critical condition.
Kansas City has seen 115 homicides in 2021, according to data maintained by The Star. Last year, Kansas City suffered the highest number of homicides in the city’s history, recording 182.
