Independence police need to be more transparent in officer-involved shootings, pursuits | Opinion

A mother is dead. So is her infant child. And three officers with the Independence Police Department were placed on administrative leave in connection with an officer-involved shooting related to this tragedy.

Four days after the woman and her child died, their names or ages have not been made public. As of this week, we don’t know much about the woman or her baby, nor what led to their deaths on Nov. 7.

We’d like to see Independence police address basic details of the incident with a level of transparency we haven’t seen from this agency.

Far too many times the public is left in the dark when it comes to fatal police shootings and deadly pursuits in that town.

At a press conference Friday afternoon, Police Chief Adam Dustman did little to distance the department from its characteristic methods. He failed to provide simple answers to questions surrounding the shooting or the domestic violence-related incident that authorities said led to this tragedy.

That must change. In the coming days, Independence police must be proactive in providing the public with pertinent information in this case.

Because of an ongoing investigation, Dustman told an assembled group of reporters that he couldn’t share many details about the shooting — true to his word, he didn’t. At least one officer fired his weapon, Dustman said.

Days after the incident at the Oval Spring apartment complex near Missouri Highway 291 and East Larkspur Lane in Independence, shouldn’t the public at least know who the victims were? That too, is concerning.

When asked if next of kin had been notified, a member of The Star Editorial Board was told officials with the Eastern Jackson County Police Involved Incident Team, the lead investigative agency in this case, were still working on contacting family members.

The PIIT team is an independent body made up of detectives from four police agencies in Blue Springs, Lee’s Summit, Independence and Grandview.

“We are working on those notifications through the PIIT process,” Dustman said. “That is their piece of it.”

No comment from prosecutor’s office

We all should take note of something Dustman did say. While he was mum on nearly every aspect of the incident, he did say one person was armed with a knife and that one officer fired his weapon. He also pointed out that the officers involved did everything they were trained to do, including attempts to deescalate the situation.

Yet, he remained vague on exactly what occurred once officers arrived on the scene.

In a statement Thursday, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office announced prosecutors would be part of the investigation.

Members of the office responded to the scene of the shooting Thursday afternoon to meet with investigators, according to the statement.

“Until witness interviews and a review of physical evidence, including video from body cameras, are available, we will have no further comment,” the statement read. “We will move forward with our review as quickly as reasonably possible. Our condolences go out to those involved and their families.”

When reached via text message the next day, Michael Mansur, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, said there were no updates to provide.

“We obviously will review but until then we cannot comment,” Mansur wrote.

Questions about fatal chases

And this lack of forthrightness is not limited to deadly police shootings. For example, little is known about some of the following high-profile pursuits involving Independence police in recent weeks and beyond:

▪ On Nov. 6, authorities said officers were fired upon during a brief pursuit around 11:00 p.m. near Truman and Noland roads. According to a statement issued by the department, the headlights of a police vehicle were struck by bullets.

The chase ended when the suspect vehicle went off road and slammed into a tree, police said. After a foot pursuit, two men were taken into custody. No injuries were reported, according to authorities.

Because charges have not been filed in this case, we don’t know what precipitated the pursuit or what led to its conclusion. To ease any concern the public may have, Independence police should release footage of the stop, the pursuit and the apprehension of the suspects. At the least, the public should be shown images of the police vehicles authorities said were damaged.

▪ On Nov. 1, a man was killed and an Independence police officer was seriously injured during a fatal pursuit that ended in a head-on collision on Interstate 70. The fleeing driver was pronounced dead shortly after the crash, while the officer in the police vehicle was hospitalized. This wrong-way crash started with a traffic stop.

▪ Last fall, Sharon Ault of Buckner was killed after Independence police initiated a pursuit that ended in a wrong-way collision between Ault’s Dodge Avenger and a Ford F-150 operated by a fleeing driver.

Because of the propensity of Independence police officers to conduct high speed chases — department policies allow these pursuits even for minor traffic infractions — more people will most likely be killed or hurt.

Ault wasn’t the first person killed because of this aggressive approach. Unless the department changes its policy, her death won’t be the last traffic-related fatality.

Suspect pursuits more frequent

We also took note of findings from a nine-month investigation conducted by The Star that found Independence police chase suspects more than any other police force in the metropolitan area, including the Kansas City Police Department.

In 2022, over 1,200 police chases that took place in the Kansas City area led to more than 150 crashes and 51 injuries, the deep dive found. Independence accounted for 33% of those injuries, according to The Star.

That same year, 72% of Independence police pursuits began over traffic violations.

Over a six-year span, at least eight people died in chases involving Independence officers, The Star reported. Six were innocent bystanders.

We can’t ignore these findings and neither should the public.

We understand that policing is a tough, dangerous and often thankless job.

But providing general details or preliminary findings in fatal police shootings or deadly crashes shouldn’t be all that difficult.