Kansas newspaper raid proves the fight to save local journalism is real. Please join us

When Marion, Kansas, Police Chief Gideon Cody chose last week to raid the town’s newspaper, he went looking for a fight.

Well, he found one.

The raid was blatant overreach, not just illegal but the kind of thing that seems unbelievable to many observers. As one of my colleagues who lives out of state said, “I thought it was a movie or something.”

Here’s the lesson that those who would choose to abuse their power should take from this: You’ll regret it.

In this case, Cody’s actions meant The Star, our sister paper The Wichita Eagle and countless other news organizations wanted to know exactly what was up with this police chief in Marion.

And we weren’t going to stop till we figured it out and could tell everyone.

More than a dozen Star and Eagle journalists have worked day and night since the raid to ensure our readers would learn the truth.

Cody was just one of the angles we pursued. The Record had investigated his background before the raid, and we were told reports alleging misconduct by Cody from his years at KCPD were made through the Office of Community Complaints. We requested the complaints but were told they are not public records. We disagree, and our attorney is challenging that decision.

But legal issues don’t resolve quickly, and we knew readers needed to know about Cody right away. So Star reporters Glenn Rice and Luke Nozicka talked to everyone they could reach who they thought might know what had happened. After three days of hard work, their efforts paid off.

On Wednesday evening The Star published this piece explaining how Cody had, as a captain in the Kansas City Police Department, faced demotion and discipline when he decided to leave after 24 years at the KCPD and head to Marion for nearly half his previous salary.

As the reporters explained, Cody made insulting and sexist comments to a female officer and had been under internal investigation when he left in April.

That’s what multiple sources – eight to be exact – told The Star. The reporters found more sources willing to talk to us than I thought possible. Those sources couldn’t use their names, both for fear of retaliation and because it related to a personnel issue, but in the news business when you have that many people with knowledge of what happened telling you the same thing, you know you’ve found the truth.

These sources come from all levels of the KCPD past and present and chose to tell us what happened because like many of our readers they, too, were outraged by his actions, both in Marion and with his female colleague before that.

The story about the end of Cody’s Kansas City tenure, though, is just one of the dozens of articles The Star and The Eagle have published so far on the Marion raid.

Others include:

• Breaking the news Wednesday that the prosecutor had withdrawn the search warrant because of “insufficient evidence.”

• Revealing how the judge who approved the raid has a history of DUI arrests.

• A deep look at how the newspaper is known for aggressively covering Marion’s many disputes.

• The early-on investigation that revealed how the Marion newspaper had looked into Cody’s KCPD years prior to the raid.

• And this column on the sad news that 98-year-old Joan Meyer had, as Melinda Henneberger put it, died in the line of duty.

This is the kind of work our journalists and those at local media organizations across America are doing every day to ensure that abuse of power is exposed and eliminated. Without local journalists – persistent and committed professionals with a direct stake in the towns where they live and work – too many stories like Cody’s would go untold.

And here’s the great irony: If Cody hadn’t led that raid on the Marion County Record offices and other locations, no one would know what he did in Kansas City. The Record had decided not to publish because they weren’t able to get the confirmation they needed.

Ideally we would be able to count on local institutions like KCPD not to let Cody move into the role of Marion police chief without informing that town about the complaints against him. But we know we can’t depend on that kind of transparency from KCPD or many other organizations.

That’s why local journalism is essential. Truth matters, and it informs citizens to make the best decisions possible.

And because of local journalism we now know what happened with Cody at the KCPD. With that information, Marion officials and the town’s residents have what they need to decide what’s best for their future.

This story was originally published August 17, 2023 at 11:26 AM with the headline "Kansas newspaper raid proves the fight to save local journalism is real. Please join us."

Greg Farmer

Opinion Contributor,

The Kansas City Star

816-234-4321

Greg Farmer is The Kansas City Star’s executive editor. He started at The Star in 1997. He was born and raised in the KC area, earned degrees from both KU and UMKC and feels very fortunate to be part of this extraordinary newsroom in his hometown.