Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith will retire April 22; board picks interim
Months after police board members decided to force him out, Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith said Friday he would retire in late April.
Smith will leave April 22 after nearly five tumultuous years at the helm of the department. A bevy of civil rights groups, neighborhood associations and clergy had called for Smith to be removed as chief.
In an internal police newsletter obtained by The Star, Smith told KCPD members that serving as the city’s top cop was his “greatest professional honor.”
“Even though I will become a retiree, my heart and soul will always be with KCPD,” Smith wrote, later adding that its members “work tirelessly to make us the greatest law enforcement agency in the nation.”
The announcement came as the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners met Friday morning to interview candidates for the department’s interim chief position until a permanent replacement is named.
After that meeting, the board announced that Deputy Chief Joe Mabin, a 22-year veteran of the force who leads KCPD’s investigations bureau, will serve as interim chief after Smith leaves. Mabin will not apply for the permanent job.
“We’re confident that the department will be in good hands during this interim period while we engage with the community in the process of hiring a new chief,” Mayor Quinton Lucas said.
Smith, who was appointed to fill the role in August 2017, has overseen a police force beset by controversies for its handling of excessive use of force, the killing of Black men by police and the city’s soaring homicide rate.
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“Even during tough times,” Smith wrote to KCPD members in his announcement, “when others questioned your chosen profession, you all demonstrated patience and restraint. You continued to serve with nobility and pride.”
Reaction to the news was swift.
First District Councilwoman Heather Hall, a fierce supporter of the police department, thanked Smith not just for his leadership as chief, but also as a sworn officer for “many years.”
“He’s protected the people of Kansas City to the best of his ability,” Hall said. “He’s been a man of Integrity.”
Civil rights leaders, such as Gwen Grant, CEO and president of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, said they looked forward to new leadership and told Smith “good riddance.”
“We need to ensure that he is replaced with a non-racist, community-focused leader with a track record of building authentic community alliances to reduce crime and protect and serve the community,” Grant said.
Mayor Lucas, who thanked Smith for his service, said he appreciated Smith’s “commitment to a smooth transition process” that would began Friday.
“I wish Chief Smith well in retirement,” Lucas wrote on Twitter.
Smith’s tenure
In November, Lucas and a member of the Board of Police Commissioners told the embattled police chief they had the votes to force him out of the department. An agreement for Smith to announce his retirement was then drawn up.
Later, the police board confirmed that Smith would retire in the spring, staying at least through the city’s current budget process. Smith maintained that he always planned to retire after five years on the job.
In appointing Smith as chief five years ago, the police board selected someone from within the department’s own ranks. Originally from Minnesota, Smith started at the force in 1987.
Some described Smith as a police chief cut in the mold of the rank-and-file. He was the police union’s choice to lead the department. Yet after three years on the job, Smith was described as insular and resistant to reform being called for across the country.
But Smith’s supporters saw him as “a real officer’s police chief” and said he protects the interests of those wearing the badge, including those he knows from having worked in the streets together.
Under Smith, the police department implemented some reforms called for in 2020 by protesters. They included turning over police shooting investigations to the Missouri State Highway Patrol and securing funding for body cameras.
But shortly after taking over as chief, Smith scrapped the Kansas City No Violence Alliance, the city’s main anti-violence strategy. Since then the number of homicides has soared to record levels.
In July, civil rights leaders asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate KCPD, citing “disturbing patterns” of officer misconduct and violent policing that targets minorities.
Those calls for Smith to step down were renewed Nov. 20 when Det. Eric DeValkenaere was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Cameron Lamb. Four days later, The Star reported that Smith was being forced out of his position as chief.
Smith faced stinging criticism shortly after the verdict when audio of him calling Lamb the “bad guy” at the scene of the December 2019 shooting was released.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker has criticized the department under Smith for not submitting statements of probable cause — an affidavit submitted by investigators in criminal cases — to her office in cases where police may have committed a crime.
Baker has said the issue demonstrates a lack of department leadership’s willingness to punish its own when wrongs are committed by officers.
She has also criticized the department for sending low-level drug cases through the system that never make their way into a courtroom. Appearing before the police board recently, Baker urged the department to instead focus more on violent crime.
This story was originally published March 25, 2022 at 9:07 AM.
