Kansas City police under fire for training on identifying ‘Gypsies,’ other ethnic groups
Update: The Kansas City Police Department said Thursday afternoon that the training had been canceled.
A training posted to the Kansas City Police Department’s website on “Criminal Gypsies/Travelers and Their Crimes” has been taken down after it faced backlash Thursday.
The term “Gypsy” is considered derogatory to many.
The announcement said the two-day training in May would focus on ethnic groups including the Roma, Polish, Yugoslavians and a group known as “The Romanian Nationals.”
The training was met with criticism on social media from local groups and other individuals, one of whom said the event was “racist & repellent.”
“#Roma have faced generations of violence and hate--even, under the Nazis, genocide--because of stereotypes like these. Kansas City Police must cancel this & apologize ASAP,” one person posted.
Sunrise Movement KC, a local activist group, said KCPD was “literally using a slur to refer to Roma people and offering a training rooted in harmful stereotypes.” The organization called on community members to email the City Council.
The training, which would cover crimes related to ruse entry burglaries, fortune telling, sweetheart swindles and scrap metal theft, among others, is put on by the Gryphon Training Group, based in North Carolina.
The company said on its website that its programs “are battle-tested & combat-ready and can help the Law Enforcement Officer maximize their effectiveness and survivability in real-world street conditions.”
A representative from the Gryphon Training Group was not available for comment.
The posting was removed from KCPD’s website around 12:30 p.m. Thursday. Sgt. Jake Becchina, a spokesman for the department, said a training commander is evaluating whether the department will participate. No attendees had signed up yet.
“We partner with many outside training providers that use our academy to host training. This was one of those occasions,” Becchina said in an email to The Star.
There are about one million Romani people in the U.S., according to a study released by the Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, which said the group is “a largely invisible community often subject to simplistic and racist stereotypes.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 1:32 PM.
