‘They skirted the issue’: Business, civic groups call for only minor police reforms

This week, the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City released recommendations to improve community relations with police.

Conspicuously absent from the list: local control of the Kansas City Police Department and a change in leadership, starting at the top with Police Chief Rick Smith. Instead, two of the region’s more influential groups called for changes that wouldn’t fix anything.

Multiple meetings and listening sessions yielded the groups’ recommendations, which included more “open-minded and inclusive dialogue” between the community and the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners, who are appointed by the governor. Under current management, the fact is that too much has already happened for that.

Another suggestion called for independent investigations in use-of-force cases and complaints filed against police officers. That would be great, but won’t happen under Smith.

“They skirted the issue,” Gwen Grant, president of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, said.

Which is not surprising, but disappointing all the same.

Under Smith’s watch, our police department is ranked one of the worst in the country, according to a nationwide police scorecard.

The board that runs the agency sued after city leaders dared ask the police to be even minimally accountable for how our own tax dollars are spent.

Smith routinely turns a blind eye to wrongdoing, and that is the crux of the problem.

Five Kansas City police officers remained on the payroll after being indicted for such serious crimes as felony assault and involuntary manslaughter.

Since 2019, officers have been accused of assaulting a transgender woman, forcing a handcuffed teenager’s face into the pavement, shooting a man to death his backyard and other instances of excessive force.

All returned to the force with Smith’s blessing. He has the discretion to issue discipline as he sees fit.

The department’s heavy-handed and aggressive response to last summer’s protests of police brutality did not encourage open-minded and inclusive dialogue. Several people who should not have been were pepper-sprayed or shot with rubber bullets. Others were unconstitutionally banned from protest sites by the police.

Smith was named chief in 2017. The number of homicides increased three out of the four years he has led the department. More than once, he has refused to authorize the release of probable cause statements to local prosecutors in officer-involved shootings or excessive force cases.

Until the governance structure of the Kansas City Police Department is remanded back to the people who fund the department, little will change with regard to trust or accountability.

If that was the goal of the recommendations, however, they are guaranteed to work as planned.