KC Mayor Quinton Lucas gives up on November vote on police local control. Now what?

Kansas City’s prolonged effort to regain full control of its police department is wobbling. Predictably, perhaps. It’s happened before.

This time must be different, though. Anyone who wants to make progress in the fight against violent crime and improve a department too often insensitive to its community must now redouble efforts to get local control.

That could include a statewide attempt to put local control on the ballot by petition. Mayor Quinton Lucas said Wednesday that an initiative petition drive is under active consideration, perhaps to start by the end of this year.

On Tuesday, Lucas withdrew his proposal to hold an advisory vote on local control in November. The mayor wanted to have a firm “yes” vote in hand when he approached skeptical lawmakers in 2021.

But now the November vote has been abandoned.

The decision to forgo a vote is disappointing. Kansas City voters would have endorsed local control, and that would have helped make the case in Jefferson City.

But forgoing a referendum need not be fatal. Instead, it should be a wake-up call to intensify efforts to change the state law giving a governor-appointed board oversight of the city’s most important responsibility.

“We’ll continue to push it,” Lucas said Wednesday.

A petition would be expensive. By some estimates, it would cost at least $1.5 million to gather enough valid petition signatures to force a statewide vote. Kansas City’s leadership should start talking about raising that kind of money if a referendum becomes necessary.

Taxpayers can’t foot the bill, of course. So the city’s business community — supplemented by local interest groups that support police accountability — should talk about paying for the petitions and a campaign.

Some City Council members said this week they still want to put local control at the top of the city’s legislative agenda. While that’s a fine idea, it likely won’t do the trick. Missouri lawmakers spend most of their time figuring out how to hurt Kansas City, not help it.

Local control must become an issue in the 2020 governor’s race. Democrat Nicole Galloway supports it; Gov. Mike Parson does not. Anyone who has watched the governor’s stumbling response to the COVID-19 pandemic has to be concerned about Parson running the Kansas City Police Department.

Voters should also demand answers from candidates for the state’s legislature and should reject anyone who declines to support local control.

During the primary campaign, The Star Editorial Board asked numerous legislative candidates about local control, and more than one said they would “listen to the people” on the issue. While it’s important for residents to let their representatives know what they want — something a November vote would have provided — Kansas Citians also deserve real political leadership on police supervision, not a lead-from-behind approach.

Opponents of local control like to point out that the crime rate in St. Louis remains high, despite that city’s supervision of their police department. It’s true. We’ve said local control isn’t a panacea for all crime.

But it’s worth noting, again, that no other major American city has adopted Kansas City’s police governance model. Denver has local control of its police, and in 2020 its murder rate is one-third of Kansas City’s.

It will take a firm commitment and unrelenting pressure for local citizens to make the police accountable. The department’s leadership opposes it; the police union opposes it; the Board of Police Commissioners resists it.

Only the people want local control. While their voices won’t be heard at the polls in November, they must keep talking about it now.