The ‘old okey-doke’: Kansas City abandons any effort to oversee its police department
The Kansas City Council passed a $1.9 billion budget Thursday, having dismissed the last realistic attempt to hold the police department responsible for the decisions it makes.
Wednesday, its Finance Committee -- on a 3-3 vote -- rejected a proposal from Councilwoman Katheryn Shields that would have put some teeth into police oversight. Instead, the committee endorsed Mayor Quinton Lucas’ fig leaf, which hints at guardrails for police spending but does nothing to provide them.
The full City Council approved the charade.
The vote is deeply disappointing, but not surprising. Here’s the dirty little secret of Kansas City politics: While its leadership class pays lip service to local control of the police department, it doesn’t actually want it. Colonialism, it appears, is just fine.
Here’s why: When the state controls your police, you don’t have to worry about them. Murders are up? Not our problem. Officers are shooting unarmed civilians? Call the governor. Emergency calls go unanswered? Not much we can do.
The most important goal in contemporary politics is the avoidance of responsibility, not the acceptance of it. The Kansas City Council set the gold standard for this approach Thursday, as did the mayor, who started this fight and then abandoned it.
The unelected Police Board is answerable to no one, which means the chief and his employees are equally immune from supervision. No one is in charge. And no one is to blame when things go awry.
Sadly, Kansas City’s bigwigs like it that way. That’s why plans for a local referendum on police control were mysteriously dropped. That’s why Kansas City declined to be a part of a statewide vote that brought local control to St. Louis. It’s why former Mayor Sly James appointed a task force that explicitly rejected local control.
It’s why Lucas and the City Council refused to appeal a judge’s ruling that stripped elected officials of any ability to adjust police spending.
In 1968, following deadly race riots on Kansas City’s east side, a special commission said local police control should be the city’s first priority. Here we are, more than half a century later. Nothing has been done.
Thursday, council members supported Lucas’ police spending approach, which sets aside $33 million for a list of items the council “expects” the department to purchase. It’s a mirage, what Barack Obama once called the “old okey-doke.”
Anyone who has ever paid attention to City Hall knows exactly what will happen next.
1. The department will get $4 million to hire 88 new officers after May 1. That should bring the total uniformed service to 1,232 members, the committee was told Wednesday.
2. In about six months, the whining will begin. Can’t find enough recruits. Current officers are quitting. Not enough time for academy classes. The recruits will fill vacant positions. In fact, we won’t have any more officers on the street at the end of the year.
3. OK, the council will reply. Can we have the $4 million back? Uh, no: gas prices are up. Overtime. Police brutality settlements. The dog ate my homework. We’re so sorry.
4. By the way: We need $4 million more next year. To hire, you know, more officers. You don’t want to defund the police.
Kansas Citians will complain about this ruse, bitterly. This newspaper will report on the problem. But nothing will happen, because Kansas City’s leaders prefer an unaccountable department that spends $270 million per year.
The murders will continue, and the silence will be deafening. Colonialism, it seems, is comfortable, and not easily overcome.
This story was originally published March 23, 2022 at 12:00 AM.