Kansas City a step closer to pushing Missouri for local control of police department
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Politics of the KCPD
The Kansas City Police Department is controlled by a five-member board of police commissioners, four of whom are appointed by Missouri’s governor. The arrangement is highly unusual for a big city and periodically becomes of a point of public debate.
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After more than 80 years of the state controlling its police force, Kansas City is poised to lobby state lawmakers for local control.
A City Council committee voted unanimously on Tuesday to make local control a top legislative priority, and the full City Council is expected to follow suit next week.
Mayor Quinton Lucas said having direct city control over the department would make it more accountable. And local elections for mayor and council members would have consequences and help determine the department’s future.
For now, Kansas City’s police department is the only one in Missouri controlled by a board appointed by the governor — a system that goes back to the era of political boss Tom Pendergast to combat corruption.
“I look to Olathe; I look to Kansas City, Kansas; I look to Independence and others,” Lucas said in an interview with The Star earlier Tuesday. “I don’t know why the people of Kansas City, Missouri, particularly its voters, are any less responsible than our peers in Grandview, Grain Valley or Bonner Springs.”
For years, Kansas City has laid out its priorities and positions for state legislation, including expanding access to child care, protecting the earnings tax and finding ways to reduce violence.
New to that list this year: turning over control of the police department to the mayor and council. City Hall controls how much it budgets for police, but otherwise has little to say in the department’s day-to-day operations.
This summer, Lucas proposed legislation that would have asked residents to vote on making local control a legislative priority. But he later reversed and asked that his proposal be held, keeping it from appearing on the November ballot.
Instead, the council will likely establish the priority itself.
In a statement, the department said it has always adhered to the direction of the Board of Police Commissioners.
“If this were to change, we would adapt and adjust at the direction of the board in whatever form is decided upon by the state and local law makers. The decision to change to city control rests with the Board, in conjunction with state legislature.”
Getting the Missouri General Assembly to grant local control will likely be an uphill climb. The city could also pursue it through a statewide ballot initiative, which St. Louis did successfully in 2012.
The council’s Special Committee for Legal Review voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt two lists of priorities. The full council is expected to hear them next week. If passed, they would guide the city’s lobbyists in Jefferson City and Washington, D.C.
Among the city’s other top priorities in the Missouri General Assembly are increasing funding for reducing violence and for public health to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Other priorities: reinstating tax credits for affordable housing, expanding early voting, allowing residents to register to vote on election day, and requiring out-of-state online retailers to collect taxes on purchases.
The proposed congressional priorities include advocating for aid for cities decimated by the pandemic’s economic fallout and funding for infrastructure and public health.
The legislation also says the city would push to revise a consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency, which requires the city to overhaul its sewer system to address overflows contaminating rivers and streams. The city hopes to limit skyrocketing wastewater rates for residents.
Council members fixed typos and made tweaks to the legislation Tuesday but appeared largely in agreement about the priorities and positions.
Pre-filing of bills for the Missouri General Assembly’s 2021 session began Tuesday, and legislators will begin meeting Jan. 6.
This story was originally published December 1, 2020 at 4:16 PM.
