Restoration of City Control Over KCPD

[kboish]

The Mayor with 7 council people introduced an ordinance today to reduce the amount of money appropriated to PD to the statutorily required percentage (28% or so General Fund). The remaining money would be put into a fund where a separate contract could be made with PD Board such that those funds would be paid out as contractual obligations are met.

The intent seems to NOT defund the police as the total amount paid would still equal what they normally get, but give the council/mayor more input on how money is spent. It purports to comply with State Law while simultaneously calls the state law unconstitutional.

The Mayor just gave a press conference.

Link to the ordinance

[beautyfromashes]

Eight councilpeople, all those south of the river. Northland skipped?

[kboish]

appears so. i think they held a press conference against it today. N vs. S out in the open.

[kboish]

This was advanced and adopted today. Bold move to introduce and adopt the same day. Some serious changes just happened.

[FangKC]

I imagine Teresa Loar is online tonight ordering the bar grates for her home's windows.

[grovester]

This is really ballsy, I have to give them credit.

Probably the only solution to a seriously intractable problem, and if it had been revealed prior to today it would have been a PR nightmare.

Hope it works out.

[alejandro46]

Mayor says he is going on Fox News to discuss this tomorrow. Kind of confusing, especially for out of towners not familiar with our local control issue.

Not really much anybody can comment about now, seems just like the a control vs. actually improving our policing service, but maybe I'm just a skeptic.

[WoodDraw]

It's just leverage. The police and the city don't get along great.

It's not a surprise that this happened after the state legislature finished.

Smith is also widely despised.

[im2kull]

Did I miss some huge controversial police issue in KC, or what?

IMO Let the police do the policing. And, perhaps start holding criminals accountable for crime and DAs accountable for prosecutorial misconduct. Problems solved.

[normalthings]

Did I miss some huge controversial police issue in KC, or what?

IMO Let the police do the policing. And, perhaps start holding criminals accountable for crime and DAs accountable for prosecutorial misconduct. Problems solved.

Police ask for more money every year for XYZ. XYZ not met. ask for more money again next year.

[chaglang]

Think of it as a kind of school choice initiative for a police department that annually fails to meet expectations. The only unusual thing is that accountability is so controversial.

[WoodDraw]

Did I miss some huge controversial police issue in KC, or what?

IMO Let the police do the policing. And, perhaps start holding criminals accountable for crime and DAs accountable for prosecutorial misconduct. Problems solved.

Police ask for more money every year for XYZ. XYZ not met. ask for more money again next year.

And not accountable. This is the city trying to get some level of control on how they spend their money. Not a priority for the police.

[FangKC]

According to the VERA Institute for Justice, 43 percent of Kansas City's spending is on policing-related expenses. Kansas City is among the highest budget percentages spent on policing among the list of large US cities.

https://www.vera.org/publications/what- ... as-city-mo

KC's percentage of budget spending is higher than that of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Washington DC, Seattle, Dallas, Denver, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Memphis, St. Louis, Detroit, New Orleans, Nashville, Indianapolis, Newark, and Baltimore.

https://www.vera.org/publications/what- ... est-cities

[flyingember]

This seems like such an odd controversy.

It's all about power and not policing

[grovester]

It also fits a national narrative that will be pushed for the 2022 midterms.

[chaglang]

Is the other option to freeze their budget increases and create a community policing fund (or something else) with the leftover money? From a citizen perspective, 43% with no control is fiscally irresponsible and not a huge improvement over the Pendergast era.

[kboish]

I bet the 43% includes municipal court. I think PD's budget was 28% of the general fund, and now it will be 20% directly to PD and that other 8% into a fund.

But, your point remains no matter that exact detail.

[FangKC]

Does municipal court also include costs for jailing, because jailing is expensive.

[alejandro46]

Looks like the police board is taking this to court. Any idea if they might win? I voted for Lucas and I'm a fan of his. While I support this move part of me wonders how much of a stunt it is because hes getting a lot of attention from it and I know he has higher political ambitions.

I believe the Police Board has just taken the initial steps to hire attornies to research their strategy on litigation. I am not really clear on the statute or claim that they are filing under, and I dont think they are yet, apart from that KCMO must provide a minimum % funding to KCPD, which they are still doing. This type of thing typically takes a long time. I wouldn't be surprised if the state legislature changes the law somehow to invalidate the ordinace/own the libs.

[Riverite]

Looks like the police board is taking this to court. Any idea if they might win? I voted for Lucas and I'm a fan of his. While I support this move part of me wonders how much of a stunt it is because hes getting a lot of attention from it and I know he has higher political ambitions.

I believe the Police Board has just taken the initial steps to hire attornies to research their strategy on litigation. I am not really clear on the statute or claim that they are filing under, and I dont think they are yet, apart from that KCMO must provide a minimum % funding to KCPD, which they are still doing. This type of thing typically takes a long time. I wouldn't be surprised if the state legislature changes the law somehow to invalidate the ordinace/own the libs.

How would that even work though, you can’t retroactively claim laws