National Urban League will ‘re-urge’ Justice Department investigation of KC police
A police department where there is collaboration between the community and law enforcement is a more effective department in keeping communities safe, the president of the National Urban League told a Kansas City crowd Thursday night.
“It’s a means to an end. A police department that works with and has a good relationship with the community is a more effective department,” Marc H. Morial said during an event held at the Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Library. “Time after time, after time, this has been proven out.”
Morial’s appearance in Kansas City was part of the group’s efforts to promote its 21 Pillars Heartland Tour, Empowering Communities to Redefine Public Safety. The initiative focuses on greater police accountability, policy reforms, increased transparency and improved hiring standards for officers.
On the two-year anniversary of murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that called for federal law enforcement agencies to revise their use-of-force policies, restrict the use of chokeholds and no-knock warrants. It also provided grants to encourage state and local agencies to adopt similar reform measures.
Morial said a number of key provisions in that order were derived from the organization’s recommendations from 2021.
“So for many communities, their priorities are violent crime, preventing and responding to violent crime and making a community safe,” he said. “Does a police department have a focus on that, or do they focus on misdemeanor offenses and chalking up a lot of traffic stops, arrests just to make numbers but it does nothing to make a community safer?”
The public forum took place as the Kansas City Police Department is looking for a new leader following the resignation of Rick Smith, who stepped down on April 22.
The Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners appointed Joseph Mabin as the interim chief and on Wednesday voted to hire a California-based firm to conduct a national search for the next chief.
Mabin, a 22-year veteran with the department, has said he doesn’t want the permanent job at this time.
As chief, Smith was sharply criticized by local civil rights groups such as the Urban League for the department’s handling of officers accused of using excessive force and the killing of Black men.
The Urban League of Greater Kansas City was among a coalition of groups that demanded Smith be removed as police chief and has petitioned the Department of Justice to launch a civil rights investigation into the patterns and practices of the police department.
Earlier on Thursday, Morial said the Urban League’s national office would “re-urge” the Justice Department to launch a patterns and practices investigation of the Kansas City Police Department.
“The pattern and practice investigation is the best remedy when you have a police department that has systemic problems,” Morial said about the Kansas City department. “And systemic problems that border on the constitutional rights of citizens. When a police department’s ranks are not diverse, they don’t reflect the makeup of this city.
“And you have a department with a history of shootings of unarmed citizens for which there has been limited accountability. You have a department that does not have good relations with the Black community on an ongoing basis and a department that is not effective in closing cases.
“This is an important remedy when local police departments don’t have a sense of urgency to fix its own problems.”
The Urban League has made a similar request for the federal authorities to investigate the Louisiana State Police.
During the public forum Thursday, Morial participated in a one-on-one conversation with Gwen Grant, president and CEO of the local Urban League.
Morial said it is critical that elected officials hold police boards, particularly those that are under state control, accountable to better control how law enforcement is funded.
“Our understanding is that a safe community is not just about law enforcement,” he said. “It’s about investments in other things, quality of housing, mental health and homeless services, youth and after school programs, gun safety legislation.”
The session also featured a series of panel discussions that included Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker; Shanette Hall, a former St. Louis police officer and a member of the Ethical Society of Police St. Louis; and Bakari Sellers, a civil rights attorney and author.
Sellers, who also is a CNN political commentator, said society should understand that justice and accountability are not the same. Derek Chauvin, the officer who was convicted in the killing of Floyd, was held accountable for his actions. Justice would have occurred if Floyd was still alive, Sellers said.
“I say that justice is a verb. Lot of you treat it as a noun. And that bothers me,” he said. “But justice is an action item. It requires work to achieve.”
This story was originally published June 10, 2022 at 6:52 AM.
