After days of protests in Kansas City, police board holds closed meeting
After six days of protest against police brutality in Kansas City, the Board of Police Commissioners is meeting in a closed session Thursday to discuss personnel matters, litigation and tactical issues.
The meeting, which Mayor Quinton Lucas touted Wednesday in a tweet from his personal account, will be held via telephone conference as an effort to limit coronavirus exposure. Details on why the meeting was called for Thursday were not immediately available.
The protests in Kansas City were among a wave of demonstrations across the U.S. inspired by the killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a white police officer in Minnesota. But Kansas City protesters have raised complaints about local police.
On Wednesday, a coalition of Kansas City civil rights groups called for the resignation of Police Chief Rick Smith. The group, which consisted of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, the NAACP’s Kansas City branch, and More2 cited a lack of confidence in Smith’s handling of fatal police shootings of African American men, and allegations of excessive use of for by the department.
Smith has said that he has no plans to resign and announced that the police department had secured $2.5 million in a private donation to purchase body cameras for police officers. No timetable was provided on the body cameras would be purchased and put in place.
Several civil rights groups and clergy in recent days have called on Kansas City police to equip its officers with body cameras, including many protesters who converged at the Plaza, which remained closed Thursday.
The closed session was called prior to the group’s demand for Smith to resign.
