Civil rights leader seeks court action to intervene in Kansas City police lawsuit against city

The head of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City is seeking court action, filing a motion Monday to join a lawsuit filed by the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners against Mayor Quinton Lucas and the City Council challenging a measure that gives the city authority over a portion of the police department’s budget,

In her filing, Urban League president Gwen Grant alleges that the “current policing structure” fails to give Kansas City taxpayers a voice in how the police department spends its money.

Grant said she took the action on behalf of the city’s taxpayers because “the ‘Taxation Without Representation’ scheme maintained in the police board’s lawsuit and the current policing structure violates” the Missouri Hancock Amendment, which is a citizens’ initiative that limits state revenues and local taxes.

“Today, I filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit filed by the Board of Police Commissioners in order to assert my constitutional rights as a Kansas City taxpayer and as an African American,” Grant said in a written statement. “Enough is enough. Kansas Citians cannot be made to write a blank check to a Board that does not answer to us, is unrepresentative of our needs, and sues our elected officials when they don’t acquiesce to the Board’s every demand.”

The City Council, last month voted 9-4 to cut this year’s police budget back to 20% of the city’s general fund, the minimum required by Missouri law.

The savings of $42.3 million would be reallocated to a newly devised “Community Services and Prevention Fund.”

The measure requires that Kansas City Manager Brian Platt and the police commissioners negotiate how to spend those funds. The police board would enter into a contractual agreement with the city to provide specific services to reduce crime, provide intervention and other services.

The board of police commissioners responded with the lawsuit, voting 4-1 to file against the city, members of the City Council, city manager Brian Platt and city finance director Tammy Queen. It says state law gives police commissioners exclusive authority and management of the Kansas City Police Department and that Kansas City has to spend at least 20% of its general revenue on policing.

Mayor Quinton Lucas, who sits on the board, was the lone vote against.

On Monday, Grant said the police board has a history that is “rooted” in the state’s control of communities with a high number of Black and other minority residents. It also diminishes the voting rights of ethnic minorities, and all Kansas City residents under the Equal Protection Clause.

During a press conference on the steps of the Jackson County Courthouse, Grant said her court filing was made after consulting with several local civil rights organizations and leaders as well as with the National League. The goal is to bring the Kansas City police department under local control and to enforce the city’s right to oversee the police department’s budget.

She said that Kansas City is the only major city in the United States that does not have local control of its police department.

“They must be accountable to us. This is not about defunding the police. This is about police being accountable to the city that they serve. This is about taxation without representation,” Grant said. “We are taking this fight to the courts to seek remedy for decades and decades, upon decades of injustice.”

The 15-page court filing said, “Ms. Grant’s Equal Protection concerns are particularly acute in this case because the Board of Police Commissioners, which is constituted in a way that deprives African-Americans of influence, is actively seeking to strike down ordinances passed by Ms. Grant’s local representatives, who are responsible and sensitive to African-American interests.”

On Monday, Lucas said he supported Grant’s decision to seek legal action to join the lawsuit because it seeks to increase accountability and save lives in Kansas City.

“Gwen Grant took a bold step today on behalf of the rights of all Kansas City taxpayers, particularly African Americans and other minorities, whose voices have for over a century been diminished in public safety conversations,” Lucas said. “Ms. Grant’s claims make clear what the Board’s suit is about and what it is not. The suit was filed by the Board to maintain power in the hands of those without our community’s interests at heart.”

Lucas continued: “The Board’s suit was filed by the Board to continue our blank check practices without accountability at a time of rising crime. The Board’s suit does not stand up for a single police officer in Kansas City, does not try to save a single life from violence in our city, and does not actually cure a budget concern. It merely pushes a status quo in public safety that has harmed our community for generations.”

Those council members who voted in favor of the measure said the city gives millions to the police department but has no say in how those tax dollars are spent. Meanwhile, the city saw a record number of homicides in 2020.

Earlier this month, a Jackson County Circuit Judge gave attorneys for the city until this week to respond to the police board’s lawsuit. During that period, Circuit Judge Kevin Harrell ordered the city to continue to fund police operations at the present spending levels.