Kansas City police board’s hasty hire of consultant for KCPD chief job is a bad sign
Kansas City’s attempt to find a new police chief grows more troubling by the day.
Wednesday, in a hastily-arranged call-in session, the Board of Police Commissioners hired a firm called Public Sector Search & Consulting to help with the search for a permanent chief of police.
The vote was strange, to say the least. Board members said they had questions about the agreement, but they approved it anyway, hoping to get answers at a later date. That seems backward.
Public Sector Search is headed by a man named Gary Peterson. In 2017, Peterson was with a different firm that recommended Rick Smith for the position. Smith turned out to be the worst police chief here in a generation.
Peterson’s company was the only firm that submitted a response when the board sought help in finding a chief. That fact troubles Mayor Quinton Lucas, who voted against the agreement.
“A helluva lot of stuff has changed over the past five years in Kansas City, in America, in policing, in race relations,” Lucas told us. “We could have done more work to give the public more confidence that we’re going to go through an extensive … search the people of Kansas City want.”
It isn’t clear why only one company stepped forward when asked to bid on the consultancy. It may be that there aren’t many companies that do the work. It’s possible the board isn’t offering enough money. (Lucas said he doesn’t know the full cost of the agreement.)
But there’s a more concerning possibility: No one else wanted to be a part of an effort which, while paying lip service to a real search, has already been decided.
That would be a disaster. Kansas Citians want a say in the next chief of police, and they deserve one. The selection of a new chief will define the next decade of policing in Kansas City.
We’ve argued for a candidate from outside the department. It’s clear the current force is made up of men and women who work hard, and care for their community. But the KCPD, like most police forces, is too bound to tradition and habit to meet the needs of the community.
It also suffers from isolated pockets of racism.
Someone from outside the department would bring a new perspective to 12th and Locust. The police board must seek out new, younger voices to lead the department.
Will it do so? The board’s decision to hire the only applicant as a consultant isn’t encouraging. It suggests the board wants to take the easy way out, picking a familiar face to conduct the search for — well, a familiar face. That isn’t what Kansas City needs.
The current police board consists of two members serving on expired terms. They, like the other two members appointed by the governor, have no legal responsibility to listen to the people of Kansas City at all. They aren’t elected and aren’t accountable to anyone.
Too often, the board acts that way.
“What’s the rush?” Lucas asked. “There is nothing more important to me than getting this choice right. … Is it worth losing confidence from folks already (in the search process)?”
Kansas Citians may soon confront an unconstitutional mandate to increase spending on police. Missouri voters may be asked to amend the state Constitution to allow that spending hike. Now is not the time to ignore the city’s voters in the selection of a new chief of police.