Kansas City Fire Department is crucial. Its culture of harassment puts us all at risk | Opinion

The recently released report on racism and sexism in the Kansas City Fire Department begins its 163 pages with a drop or two of good news: “The Kansas City Fire Department (KCFD) has made significant changes in policies and practices in the last three years to create a safer, more inclusive workplace.”

And, in fact, it’s progress that the city has hired LaDonna McCullough as its first chief equity officer to work against discrimination.

But after that brief start, the report turns into a full-powered firehose of blistering criticism. The KCFD, in fact, appears to be such a cultural mess that it almost needs to be torched and rebuilt. At the very least, fixing the department must become a top city priority. The department’s dangerous but vital work must get done, but not at the expense of its employees who are victims of racial slurs and life-threatening harassment. Clearly, there’s been much of both.

This stark new report resulted from a City Hall decision to look into the problems uncovered in an investigation that The Star published in 2020. It documented decades of systemic racism and sexism tolerated by fire department and City Hall leadership. Among other disheartening findings, it showed that the city’s fire stations were segregated by keeping Black firefighters out of inner-city stations. One reason that’s a problem is that positions at those stations are considered the most sought-after because they are roads to promotion.

The encouraging news about all of this is that civil rights activists, faith leaders and some city officials have reacted to this new report by demanding that these problems be acknowledged and fixed.

It was, for instance, reassuring to hear City Manager Brian Platt say that “this report confirms our urgent need to continue to push for changes to better serve our employees and our residents.” But, of course, much more than words are needed to counter what the Rev. Vernon P. Howard Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City, described as “disturbing cultural norms within the entire KCFD agency.” Those norms, he said, “do not promote or produce equity, diversity, inclusion or racial justice.”

If calls for action are ignored and the status quo allowed to remain, Kansas City will continue to suffer great damage at a time when there’s so much here to celebrate — from the opening of a new airport, to another Super Bowl championship, to the upcoming NFL draft day extravaganza, to a flourishing arts scene, to a streetcar extension under construction and more.

The Star’s initial reporting and this follow-up city report have revealed a terrible stain on the city. But several times in its history Kansas City has faced and fixed deep problems of local governance (think, for instance, of the corrupt Tom Pendergast era). It’s time again to repair something that never should have become this broken.

The new report makes 15 reasonable recommendations for how City Hall and the fire department should respond. The mayor, council members and city manager should take those seriously. If they need some adjustments, fine. Make them. But work quickly to implement the fix-it spirit behind them.

A good addition to those recommendations would be to make sure there’s a report at every City Council meeting on the progress, or lack of it, being made to rebuild a strong, fair, capable fire department. That work may require new department leadership and new, better-working relationships with the two International Association of Fire Fighters unions that represent KCFD employees, locals 42 and 3808.

The dangerous work that Kansas City firefighters do is much too important for their department to be a cauldron of racism and sexism. At their worst, such conditions can put lives at risk because the right people may not be in the right jobs if staffing choices are not based on training and ability but on prejudice.

Kansas City cannot afford that, and Kansas Citians should demand better — much better.

This story was originally published February 14, 2023 at 1:17 PM.