Should Kansas City police officers be required to live inside the city limits?
Kansas City’s chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police wants to end the rule requiring officers to live inside the city limits.
On Tuesday, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said he will push legislation allowing St. Louis officers to live outside their city. The next day, Kansas City FOP President Brad Lemon added his members to the effort to end police residency rules.
“It’s an antiquated law,” Lemon said. “It makes little to no sense.”
We disagree. A residency requirement for Kansas City police officers is sensible and helps protect the public in several ways.
The first is fundamental and obvious: A residency rule ensures police officers have a stake in other city services, good schools and safe neighborhoods.
That’s true for almost all public employees. And that’s another reason ending the residency rule would be problematic: If police are allowed to move outside the city, firefighters and other city workers will demand that same right.
If Kansas City is abandoned by its own employees, we will be worse off for it.
There are practical concerns. The presence of police officers in the community, even when they’re off-duty, makes neighborhoods more secure.
“Should an officer who needs a police vehicle full time drive that vehicle to sit in his/her residence driveway overnight outside of the city limits? Or even in another state? ...That creates issues,” police board member Leland Shurin said in an email, speaking, he said, for himself and not the full board.
Imagine the reaction if a Kansas City officer were to be involved in a violent incident downtown, then went home to, say, Leawood. Some Kansas Citians are already distrustful of police; any appearance of an “occupying force” of outsiders could make the problem much worse.
Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith is opposed to lifting the residency rule. In general, sworn officers must live in Kansas City for one year before beginning police employment, while civilian workers have nine months to move into the city. Both requirements can be waived in certain circumstances.
Mayor Quinton Lucas has not yet weighed in on the issue. He is a member of the police board, which established the residency requirement. But he was endorsed by the Kansas City FOP, which sees the end of the residency rule as a top goal.
The mayor’s office declined to comment until he can discuss the issue with the board.
Lemon and others say recruiting new officers is difficult with a residency requirement. The evidence is mixed — Shurin says the department does not lack for applicants — but largely irrelevant. If you want to work for Kansas City, you should live in Kansas City.
Finally, it must be said: Why is this an issue for the state legislature? Local officials in St. Louis are at a stalemate over this question and have turned to Jefferson City to sort it out. That has nothing to do with us.
Kansas Citians want more autonomy on gun laws and are growing weary of state interference in local affairs. Leave us out of this.
Kansas City police officers deserve respect for their courage and for the essential role they play in our community. But their job is best done by people who live in the city they protect and serve.