KC police can ticket you for dirty car tires. Mayor Lucas is right to challenge that

Did you know you’re breaking the law in Kansas City if your tires are too muddy?

Yep. A current Kansas City ordinance prohibits cars and trucks from depositing “mud, dirt, sticky substances, litter or foreign matter of any kind” on streets and highways. You can be ticketed if you do it.

The reasons for the ordinance are lost to history. Perhaps there was a time when cars and trucks routinely left slop on the street.

But the ordinance provides a pretext for police to stop drivers and look for other violations, which may be why Mayor Quinton Lucas wants it off the books.

Lucas introduced an ordinance Thursday removing the “dirty tires” section of the city’s code. Also on the repeal list: a current ordinance allowing uniformed police to stop bicycles they believe are unsafe or “not in proper adjustment or repair.”

Does the department train its officers to spot bad bicycles? Pursuing miscreant bicyclers seems like a poor use of time in a city where brutal murders just set a record.

Lucas’ repeal ordinance addresses the city’s jaywalking code, too. The whole thing will be debated in the coming weeks.

But the mayor’s goal of getting officers to focus on real, dangerous crime — as opposed to nuisance ticket-writing — is sound, and should be encouraged. Kansas City is in the middle of a crime wave that has nothing to do with muddy wheels or broken bike seats.