Justice Department closed investigation of racism within KCPD without comment
Days before President Joe Biden left office, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) closed its investigation of hiring and employment practices at the Kansas City Police Department, a police spokesman said.
“In 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it had initiated an investigation into the employment practices of the Kansas City Police Department,” Sgt. Phil DiMartino said in a written statement that he emailed to The Star on Thursday night.
“DOJ ceased requesting information from KCPD in 2023. On January 17, 2025, DOJ notified KCPD it had closed the investigation with no findings.”
DiMartino’s email came in response to The Star’s request for a status report on the investigation following Thursday afternoon’s announcement that the Justice Department under President Donald Trump had dropped a similar investigation into discriminatory employment practices at the Kansas City Fire Department.
On Friday, DiMartino supplied The Star with a copy of the letter KCPD received from Karen D. Woodard, chief of employment litigation in the civil rights division of the DOJ.
“In a letter dated September 19, 2022, we advised you that the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice had initiated an investigation into the employment practices of Kansas City, Missouri Police Department (KCPD) pursuant to Section 707 of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. “ Woodard wrote.
“ The Department of Justice has concluded its investigation and decided to close the matter without further action.”
City officials supplied The Star on Thursday with a copy of a similar letter from Woodard announcing the end of the fire department investigation. It was dated Jan. 21, a day after Trump took office.
Both letters noted that the end of those investigations “does not preclude the right or ability” of employees or former employee to file a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights.
The Trump administration has put a freeze on all federal civil rights litigation. It’s unclear whether that decision or other signals that the new administration would take such action influenced the Kansas City cases.
Both federal probes were initiated after The Star published separate multi-part investigative reports two years apart on alleged discrimination within those departments.
The letter the city received with regard to the fire department investigation did not say why that case was closed. Silence on the Justice Department’s reasoning is not unusual when no action is taken.
The Star has asked the police department for a copy of the letter it received but has not received one by the time of publication.
The Department of Justice notified Kansas City in mid-2021 that it was investigating racial discrimination within the Kansas City Fire Department.
That inquiry began after The Star reported in a series of articles in December 2020 that Black and women firefighters faced discrimination when it came to hiring, promotions and treatment within the workplace.
Black Kansas City police officers voiced similar complaints about their department in The Star’s 2022 series about racism within their department. That fall, the justice department’s civil rights division began an investigation to determine whether there was a pattern or practice of discrimination against Black police officers in Kansas City.
Kansas City officials say they have taken a number of steps since 2021 to address concerns about discriminatory treatment within the fire department, including efforts to inject more fairness into the promotion process and achieving greater diversity in hiring new firefighters.
But complaints continue. Both departments are currently being sued by current and former employees alleging that they faced discrimination with regard to race or gender. Both the police department and city of Kansas City have millions of dollars to settle racial discrimination from Black firefighters and police officers.
In August, the city signed a new labor agreement with the union that represents firefighters. One clause would limit future hires from filing discrimination lawsuits.
Rather than handling those disputes through the court process, the majority would be resolved through arbitration. Critics say employees are less likely to win through arbitration, and when they do, those monetary awards they receive are lower than they might have gotten had they filed a lawsuit.
This story was originally published January 24, 2025 at 12:41 PM.
