Bill to lift Kansas City police residency rule gets initial Missouri Senate approval

Kansas City police officers would be allowed to move out of the city, but not across the state line, under a bill that received initial approval by the Missouri Senate Tuesday night.

Kansas City Democrats secured the concession from the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, after hours of private negotiations and an impassioned speech by Sen. Barbara Washington. Kansas City could still institute a requirement that officers live within 30 miles of city limits, down from Luetkemeyer’s earlier proposal of 60.

“I am afraid of the Kansas City police and I am afraid of them because they don’t understand my culture, they don’t understand that when you pull up behind me it scares the heck out of me, I wonder if I’m going to make it home,” Washington said, referencing the case of Donnie Sanders, an unarmed Black man who was shot and killed by a Kansas City officer last March after police tried to pull him over.

“You should live close to the people you are supposed to protect and serve,” the Kansas City Democrat added.

The bill, which also includes police reforms such as banning the use of police chokeholds statewide, requires one more floor vote to pass the Senate.

Tuesday night’s compromise moves forward a residency proposal widely opposed by local officials, including Mayor Quinton Lucas, city council members and police commissioners, long frustrated that there is no local control of the Kansas City Police Department.

“Such a bill is a step back for community-police relations at a time our city cannot afford it,” Lucas wrote on Twitter as the Senate debated the bill. “Outside occupying forces lead to more problems, not fewer.”

The proposal is supported by the local police union. Luetkemeyer, a Parkville Republican who called the residency requirement “archaic,” read letters from officers and families asking for it to be lifted.

“It’s fundamentally unfair,” he said. “We’re singling out the Kansas City police officers and treating them differently than the deputies across the state.”

The legislature voted to help do away with St. Louis’ police residency requirement last year, at the request of Mayor Lyda Krewson. She said the restriction was making it difficult to recruit officers.

Earlier this year, Luetkemeyer combined the bill with one that would ban police statewide from using chokeholds and from having sex with detainees.

That proposal, sponsored by St. Louis Democrat Brian Williams, is considered by activists to be the most promising statewide move toward police reform since the death of Michael Brown at the hands of a Ferguson police officer more than six years ago.

Police departments are currently required to submit the circumstances of an officer’s departure to a state police commission. The bill would also require departments to review an officer’s history with other law enforcement agencies before hiring them.

In a statement, Williams said the bill “will save Black lives” and “help upstanding law enforcement officers rid their ranks of the few bad actors who tarnish their honored profession.”

Lucas on Twitter wrote that “Giving up residency and police who better know their community in exchange for a chokehold ban most departments contend already exists and a prohibition on sexual conduct [with] someone in custody (wrong already) is not sufficient compromise.”

Both Williams and Lucas have said they are considering running for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Roy Blunt.

Tuesday evening, Sen. Greg Razer, a Kansas City Democrat, first tried to amend the bill to prohibit officers from living outside the state.

“If we’re going to have Kansas City, Missouri police officers patrolling the streets of Kansas City, Missouri, and we’re going to say that they don’t have to be Kansas Citians, at least we could say, hey we’re not going to let them move three blocks and start paying Kansas taxes,” he said.

The proposal failed, but did get a handful of Republican votes. Washington then pushed further to restrict the allowable residency radius, prompting negotiations where the Kansas exception was again included.

The final bill got pushback from Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz, a Sullivan Republican, who called the state line boundary “arbitrary.”

This story was originally published March 24, 2021 at 8:03 AM.