Kansas City deserves a say in choosing a new KCPD chief. Will the police board listen?
Kansas City residents will get a chance to speak out about the kind of police chief they want after years of clashing with the Board of Police Commissioners over the last one.
Relations between Kansas City residents and the state-appointed police board have grown increasingly tense during Chief Rick Smith’s tenure, with repeated calls to remove Smith for exercising poor leadership. The chief defended excessive force by police and dismissed police shootings as justified by mere definition. The board has authority to fire Smith, if it chooses.
In the four years with Smith as chief, Kansas City saw high homicide rates, violent street protests and a series of incidents of police brutality, including twice as many incidents of police fatally shooting Black men than during the tenure of the previous chief. Residents called for Smith’s resignation and more police accountability. Smith announced recently he’s retiring in the spring.
We’re certain that Kansas Citians won’t be looking for a chief anything like Smith, who was defiant when it came to transparency and being held accountable to the communities he was hired to serve.
What qualities are residents looking for in a new chief? Well, we have a chance to find out at 10 a.m. on Saturday, when the Urban League of Greater Kansas City hosts an online forum to gather feedback. The Urban League hopes the police board is paying attention.
“Unfortunately, the BOPC has consistently been tone deaf to the outcries for transparency, accountability, equal justice under the law, and Chief Smith’s feckless leadership of KCPD,” said Gwen Grant, CEO and president of the Urban League.
“If the past is prologue, we have very low expectations that the Board of Police Commissioners will amplify community voices as they move forward with hiring a new chief,” said Grant, who has been an outspoken critic of Smith and the BOPC.
“Hiring a police chief,” as Grant says, “is one of the most important decisions a Board of Police Commissioners makes.”
The process for selecting a new chief offers the board an opportunity to repair and restore community trust in the Kansas City Police Department. A police department that puts the “public” back into public safety. And that starts with the board of commissioners, which ultimately controls the police department and police service.
“If they decide to exercise their power to do what is best for Kansas City taxpaying citizens rather than what is in the best interest solely of KCPD, we can transform public safety and build community trust,” Grant said. Let’s hope the board pays close attention to what the citizens of this city ask for.
This story was originally published January 25, 2022 at 5:00 AM.