New felony charges suggest KCPD knew officers acted improperly but protected them anyway
Two Kansas City police officers are now charged with felonies for using excessive force when they arrested Breona Hill, pinned her to the ground and slammed her head into the pavement in May 2019.
A Jackson County jury, acting on new testimony, this week upgraded the charges against officers Matthew Brummett and Charles Prichard. Both men are now accused of “knowingly” causing injury to Hill, a transgender woman, when they arrested her outside a beauty supply store that spring.
During the arrest — captured on video — the officers operated “in concert,” the charges say, to hurt Hill, by kneeling on her and slamming her face to the concrete.
Both were originally charged with misdemeanor fourth-degree assault. Now they each face a felony charge of assault, which could result in at least one year in jail.
The case is well-known in Kansas City, and has drawn national attention. As is true for all criminal prosecutions, the officers are entitled to a presumption of innocence.
But there was a disturbing revelation Friday in the grand jury documents, one that calls into question Chief Rick Smith’s commitment to holding his officers fully accountable for their actions.
The upgraded charges, the documents say, were partly the result of new testimony from current officers about the tactics the two police defendants used when they arrested Hill.
A person identified as the lead defensive tactics instructor at the department’s academy told investigators that Brummett and Prichard used questionable methods in the arrest. Then, the instructor’s supervisors said there were “other issues” with the defendants’ actions that day, including “the knee to Ms. Hill’s neck” and “standing on her hip.”
“The combined position (of the witnesses) was that the majority of the Defendants’ actions were not justified,” the new evidence says. In fact, “the Defendants were made to go through re-training to address these issues,” the grand jury learned.
That means the Kansas City Police Department’s own experts knew the two officers acted improperly when they arrested Brianna Hill. The department made the two officers take a refresher course on how to arrest someone.
Yet Smith, and the department, claimed an internal investigation found “no probable cause” to conclude the officers broke the law. The chief even declined to submit a probable cause statement to the prosecutor’s office, forcing it to seek grand jury indictments in the case.
We have called for Chief Smith’s resignation. This is one reason why: He is far more committed to protecting his officers than seeing justice done, in this case and others. His department knew something went wrong with the arrest, but he did his best to block even the consideration of prosecution of the two officers.
It’s also more evidence, as if any were needed, that the Kansas City Police Department cannot be allowed to discipline itself. It must have outside, independent oversight to ensure officers are held to the same criminal standards as any other person in the city.
The Board of Police Commissioners, all but one appointed by Missouri’s governor, have shown no inclination to act independently of the department. They aren’t the answer.
Kansas Citians must trust their police department. They won’t do that until they’re convinced the department pursues wrongdoing within its ranks with the same energy it seeks lawbreakers in the community.
The upgraded charges against Brummett and Prichard, and the new evidence, suggest there is one set of rules for police, and another for everyone else. It’s a continuing stain on the department, one that can only be erased with new leadership and a new governance model.
This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 6:01 PM.