Democrat & Republican KC-area lawmakers want answers on slow KCPD racism investigation
It’s been two years since the Department of Justice opened up an investigation into allegations of racist hiring and employment practices of the Kansas City Police Department.
Federal lawmakers who represent Kansas City say they don’t know what’s causing the holdup.
“I just know that there’s some nervousness over the slowness of DOJ,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat. “Now I may try to figure out who the contact person is at DOJ and ask where they are and whether or not they’re even doing any investigations. But I’m not sure I have any standing.”
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division launched an investigation into the Kansas City Police Department in 2022 after Black officers in the KCPD told The Star about a system that effectively forces them out of the department.
The investigation found that the Police Department fails at retaining and recruiting Black officers, that Black officers were reprimanded at a higher rate than their white colleagues and that some Black officers left the force because of the discrimination and harassment they encountered.
But two years into the investigation, key officers still haven’t been contacted by investigators, prompting concern about the efficacy of the investigation. At least five officers named in The Star’s investigation have not been contacted by the Department of Justice.
Those officers, like Kevin Sorrells and Scott Wells, said they faced discrimination and harassment while serving in the Police Department. Wells compared the experience to “being a mouse in a snake cage.”
Cleaver said he hasn’t heard much about the investigation over the past two years – the Department of Justice usually keeps its investigations close to its chest. But he said that, even if he did try to learn more, it might not work.
“They’re not one of the rapid response departments that we have,” Cleaver said.
‘I’d like to see the outcome’
He isn’t alone. Missouri’s two Republican senators – Eric Schmitt and Josh Hawley – said they didn’t know enough about the investigation to comment in depth.
Hawley, who has been critical of the Justice Department for the past four years, related it to his ongoing effort to pressure the department over security lapses that led to assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump.
“I don’t know where they are on it,” Hawley said. “Although, this DOJ, look at how they’re investigating the Trump assassination from two months ago. They’ve done nothing. They don’t do much fast at all, ever. But I’d like to see the outcome of the investigation. I’m as in the dark as anyone else.”
Lauren Bonds, an attorney with the National Police Accountability Project, said the civil rights division is often strategic about how it approaches investigations. While the department could have started the investigation by looking at statistics, she said it’s unusual that some of the key officers still haven’t been contacted.
“That there’s these kind of public folks that haven’t been interviewed, haven’t had their statements taken, haven’t received any requests for evidence, it sounds like,” Bonds said. “That is pretty unusual.”
It isn’t the first time that the Department of Justice launched an investigation into racism at the Kansas City Police Department and then failed to deliver a report.
The department launched an investigation into why there were fewer Black officers in the KCPD than expected in 2009. They never released a report.
This story was originally published October 1, 2024 at 12:31 PM.
