KC police officer who held an unarmed man at gunpoint has left, but what happened? | Opinion
Nearly four years after a former Kansas City police officer at the center of a $1 million federal lawsuit allegedly held an unarmed Black man at gunpoint, we still don’t know what punishment the officer faced.
The ex-officer, Jonathan Lenz, left the department last January, according to police officials. And the reason why he quit the force remains a secret, too. Therein lies the problem with the Kansas City Police Department.
When a Kansas City police officer violates department policy or procedure, the public would be hard-pressed to find out his or her identity. In the spirit of transparency and rebuilding trust between the department and the Kansas City community, that needs to change.
Other cities such as Omaha routinely identify officers involved in deadly use-of-force or other high-profile incidents. Denver’s Office of Independent Monitor is a civilian oversight agency with much more power than Kansas City’s Office of Community Complaints.
Missouri lawmakers, take note of transparency laws in neighboring Illinois. Under state law there, police misconduct records are public, according to Invisible Institute, a nonprofit that tracks allegations of officer misconduct in Chicago. We can’t say the same here.
In most cases, Kansas Citians only learn the names of officers accused of wrongdoing through lawsuits or other legal actions. Under Missouri’s open records law, police officers’ disciplinary records are closed, a legal loophole used to help keep the public in the dark about repeat offenders.
Therefore, officer malfeasance is protected from public scrutiny.
And this isn’t a knock on Kansas City’s rank-and-file officers. Policing is a tough job. In the name of public safety, officers must make split-second decisions. Surely, that isn’t an easy task.
Yes, state law limits what police officials can tell us about an officer’s personnel record. But it is not unlawful to release “the names, positions, salaries and lengths of service of officers and employees of public agencies” involved in serious use-of-force incidents, according to statutes.
With broad immunity powers that shield them, police officers are expected to act with professionalism at all times. When they don’t, we should know who they are and what policies were violated.
Murder suspect sued KCPD
Taquiza Johnson is another former Kansas City police officer whose reasons for leaving are unknown. He is accused of fatally shooting 71-year-old Ronald Barnett last week near a Walmart in Kansas City’s Northland. The charges Johnson faces — second-degree murder and armed criminal action — are serious.
Johnson allegedly shot Barnett outside his car after a brief altercation between the two, according to court records. We hope to learn more about Barnett, the victim in this case, and how he lived. His death should not be forgotten.
But the connection between Lenz and Johnson is palpable. In October 2020, while off-duty and out of uniform, Lenz held Johnson at gunpoint for no apparent reason, according to legal documents. Yet this incident was never made public until last year when Johnson, 47, filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court, a happenstance we see far too often here.
About a week before Johnson was arrested in connection to Barnett’s death, attorneys met for mediation in the $1 million federal lawsuit making its way through U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
Lenz and the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners are defendants in the case, legal records show.
Nothing in official documents indicates the two former officers knew each other before their encounter. The criminal and civil cases were not related, but provide another example of why a more transparent process on officers’ discipline is needed.
What prompted Lenz to pull his weapon on Johnson anyway? On Oct. 19, 2020, while working as a self-employed repair man, Johnson made the mistake of knocking on the wrong door of a Northland home on the same street where Lenz lived.
In the suit, Johnson claims Lenz used excessive force and committed other civil rights violations during the interaction. At the time, Johnson owned Getit2gether Repair, a Leawood-based electronics repair shop.
After more than a decade as a police officer, Johnson left the KCPD in 2014, according to the department. Police officials would not say why Johnson’s tenure ended or if he did something to expedite his departure.
According to the lawsuit, a neighbor called 911 to report a prowler. Lenz, off duty at the time, responded and saw Johnson, who had done nothing other than mistakenly ring the wrong doorbell, the lawsuit contends.
Lenz wore around his neck a commemorative police badge that celebrated the department’s 145th anniversary. By doing so, he violated a department policy, the oversight agency Office of Community Complaints found. Off-duty officers aren’t allowed to display or use any badge other than their current department approved one.
The lawsuit reports that Lenz held Johnson at gunpoint before other KCPD officers arrived. Prolonging the encounter with Johnson without evidence of a crime being committed was also against department policy, the OCC concluded.
Edward Stump, one of the attorneys representing Johnson in the civil lawsuit, declined to comment on the criminal charges against Johnson. The civil case is ongoing, according to Stump.
Why did ex-cop leave KCPD?
This column is not intended to single out Lenz — I don’t know the ex-lawman, and attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful.
But it’s not often that we learn the identity of an officer accused of violating department policy.
Lenz left the department in January 2023. He was an eight-year veteran last assigned to the patrol bureau, Kansas City Police Sgt. Jake Becchina wrote in a recent email. He declined to comment on Lenz’s departure.
“As you know, disciplinary matters are closed records per Missouri sunshine law,” Becchina wrote.
Lenz pulled his service weapon on an unarmed man and kept his job for a little over two more years. We don’t know if that incident was Lenz’s first violation of department policy or his last. To me, that isn’t right.
There is no public record on what consequences Lenz faced for his actions that led to him being sued in federal court. If he left because of reasons not related to the accusation, police should say so.
According to minutes from a Board of Police Commissioners meeting on April 25, 2023, Lenz quit the force before he was fired. At the meeting, citing state law, police commissioners denied Lenz’s request for an armed private security license.
“An applicant may be denied if the applicant has been terminated or resigned under investigation or threat of discharge from the Department,” the minutes read. “Mr. Lenz resigned from KCPD, pending termination, in January 2023.”
Do citizen complaints work?
Johnson’s formal complaint against Lenz was sustained by the Office of Community Complaints in 2021, according to a letter sent to him from Merrell Bennekin, OCC executive director.
The correspondence, dated June 21, 2021, reads: “It is the recommendation of the Office of Community Complaints that your complaint of improper procedure (inappropriate conduct and violation of policy and procedures) should be sustained; therefore, disciplinary action has been taken against the subject member regarding this matter. Please be advised that the Board of Police Commissioners and the Office of the Chief of Police have been apprised of your complaint and the outcome of this investigation.”
According to the OCC, after a complaint is proven factual, the agency only recommends discipline. The actual punishment is handed down by the police chief with backing from police commissioners, neither of whom make such decisions readily available to the public.
I question this approach.
Through the first three months of this year, not one of the 73 complaints filed against a Kansas City Police officer was sustained, according to the agency’s quarterly report. The data is in line with the three previous years.
In the first quarter of 2021, the OCC reported that just one complaint out of 40 was sustained. The following year, the number was one out of 61. Last year, through three months, 64 complaints were filed but only one found an officer violated department policy, OCC data shows.
Because of these relatively low numbers, it would be easy to say the system doesn’t work. In a lot of cases, it is hard to argue otherwise. But the lack of transparency in cases makes it difficult to judge, so I will withhold further views until all data is reported for this year.
Anything beats a zero, but Kansas City clearly has more work to do in this area.
The argument that Kansas Citians deserve more accountability from its police department is nothing new. We must continue to call on law enforcement officials to do what’s right.
In a city that allocates up to 25% of its general revenue budget on policing, doesn’t the public have a right to know who the problem officers are?
This story was originally published August 29, 2024 at 5:08 AM.
