In town hall, Kansas City police Chief Smith says police staffing is a big challenge
Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith said Wednesday the largest challenge he is facing in his role as the city’s top cop is an unexpected drop in department staff.
The chief, answering a question during a publicly broadcast town hall, said there has been an unexpected leave of department members that has put KCPD in a “very tight spot” with its workload. He said there needs to be a minimum staffing level that meets what’s needed to “safely cover this city and to safely allow officers to do their job.”
“When we have the amount of violence we have in this city, officers day in and day out are seeing trauma every night,” Smith said.
“Every night, they’re seeing shooting victims, they’re going to homicide scenes, they’re seeing violent crime. It is hard to keep up that pace and see all that and experience all that. Workload helps take some of that off, and the distribution of the workload helps tremendously. I would like to see us get to that point.”
Smith has previously raised staffing levels as a major issue. On Wednesday, the chief said department members have been leaving at an accelerated pace that aligns with trends seen in other law enforcement agencies across the nation. In KCPD, many of them are retirees but others are looking for careers outside policing altogether, the chief said.
The chief made a rare public speaking appearance for the virtual town hall organized by neighborhood associations representing south and metro areas of Kansas City. Smith is most often heard from publicly during regular meetings of the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners.
During the 90-minute question and answer session, the chief was joined by others from the department including ranking sworn members of the Metro Patrol and South Patrol divisions of the department. Questions asked covered violent crime, streetcar sideshows, budget decisions, and the governing structure overseeing the police department.
Last year was Kansas City’s most violent year on record with 182 homicides, though violent crime has fallen in some areas so far this year. The department also has faced criticism over local use of force controversies, including the handling of large summer protests last year calling for police reform. And a host of civil rights groups have called upon Smith to resign. No such calls came during Wednesday’s event, and the chief has repeatedly said he has no plans to step down.
During a point reserved for the chief to make general remarks, Smith cited police policy changes made recently, including a revision to officer conduct instructions when handling public protests and the implementation of body cameras for officers, as steps toward addressing community concerns.
The chief said those changes and others are being made “so that everyone feels like they’re well represented by their police department” in Kansas City. And he said ultimately the police officers with KCPD want the same things as the city’s residents.
“We want the same things as everybody else does. And I think we would like, all of us combined, to have less violence in our city,” Smith said.
