‘It looks like a cover-up’: KC police chief is impeding investigations of officers
Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith has twice rejected routine requests for criminal complaints against police — a highly unusual tactic that appears aimed at protecting his officers from legal scrutiny.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker has raised serious concerns about the police chief’s decision to withhold probable cause statements in two incidents involving officers, telling Smith in a pointed letter that his department’s actions were limiting her ability to file charges and ultimately could undermine trust in law enforcement.
The letter, obtained by The Star Editorial Board, suggests that Smith’s actions delayed the prosecution of three Kansas City police officers.
“By withholding a probable cause statement for an officer-involved incident, you are blocking the prosecutor’s independent review of the facts under the law,” Baker wrote to Smith in April. “Our system of government depends on checks and balances and oversight. Without such, the public will not have confidence in our decisions.”
Other prosecutors and legal experts agreed that Smith’s actions made it more difficult for the prosecutor to do her job, saying that withholding probable cause statements also created the appearance of a cover-up.
One of the cases in question involved the arrest of a transgender woman last year. Smith said an internal investigation found the arresting officers did not break the law. Officers claimed the woman, who was pinned to the ground by police, pounded her own face onto the pavement. A video shot by a passerby tells a much different story.
Smith could not comment on the second case, the officer-involved shooting death of Cameron Lamb, because it’s an ongoing investigation.
The Kansas City man was killed last year by police in his own backyard after an altercation with his girlfriend near 35th Street and College Avenue.
In February, Baker sought a probable cause statement to file charges against a police detective involved in the Lamb case but was denied. One month later, a request to file criminal charges against officers Matthew Brummett and Charles Prichard in connection with the arrest of the transgender woman, Brianna “BB” Hill, was also rejected.
Baker criticized Smith for stonewalling in both investigations. The chief’s tactic nearly precluded Baker from pursuing justice in the Hill case due to the statute of limitations.
A Jackson County grand jury recently indicted Brummett and Prichard on fourth-degree assault charges.
“There was a conflict regarding the process of how that case was presented to the prosecutor’s office,” Smith said. “That conflict did not affect further court proceedings.”
Brummett and Prichard were summoned to appear in court in August and face up to a year in jail.
Grand juries are a public trust issue
Police rarely say no when prosecutors ask for a complaint against suspected offenders, one of two legal options used to file charges in a criminal case.
A grand jury process is the other option. But as Baker noted in her letter to the chief, “the grand jury is shrouded in secrecy by rule of law, which may produce mistrust in our community due to the lack of transparency.”
Tim Lohmar, prosecuting attorney for St. Charles County and president of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, said a law enforcement agency denying the prosecutor’s request for a probable cause statement is a rarity. The result , he said, is that Baker has been hindered from doing her job, “which is to make the ultimate determination whether or not a crime occurred.”
Bennett Gershman, a law professor at Pace University in New York and a former prosecutor who studies prosecutorial misconduct, said Smith should not play hard ball when it comes to legal scrutiny of his officers.
“That looks bad,” Gershman said “That looks like a cover-up. Whether it is or not, it looks like a cover-up.”
As evidenced by Smith’s recent ill-advised decisions, the status quo is no longer tenable. The Kansas City Police Department has long failed to recognize the importance of transparency or holding its own officers accountable. Going forward, the department should allow an outside agency to conduct use-of-force investigations into Kansas City police officers.
Nathan Garrett, president of the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners, said there have been internal discussions about that approach. But ultimately, he supports the way the department currently handles internal inquiries.
“No one has shown me convincing evidence that our practice has resulted in a miscarriage of justice,” Garrett said.
In fact, Smith’s recent actions threaten to do just that. And the police chief has suggested that he plans to continue this misguided approach.
“I’ve been told that all future probable cause statements may be withheld in officer-involved incidents investigated by your department,” Baker wrote to the chief.
The department’s stance represents a significant and troubling change in procedure. Smith’s predecessor, Darryl Forté, regularly handed over criminal complaints against officers accused of excessive force.
Under Forté, investigators recommended charges against former officers Carl Counti and Shannon Hansen that eventually landed both officers in jail.
But things have changed since Smith became the police chief in 2017.
The tension between the police chief and the prosecutor is bubbling to the surface at a moment when homicides in Kansas City are on a record pace for the year, and efforts to reduce violent crime are falling woefully short. Public confidence in Smith’s department has already taken a hit, and the chief’s latest maneuvers will only raise additional questions about his leadership.
No one is entitled to stand in the way of the legal process — not even the police chief. And when officers run afoul of the law, they must be held accountable.
As Baker correctly writes, “The community must believe that civilian-victims and officer-suspects receive fair treatment under the law and its processes.”
By impeding the prosecutor’s work, Smith is chipping away at that trust.