Kansas City has spoken. Here’s what KCPD, community want in search for new police chief

Kansas City’s next police chief needs to be transparent, focused on building community trust and have a clear crime-fighting vision, according to a new report compiled by community leaders.

Beginning in March, a coalition of 16 civic, faith-based and business organizations sponsored a series of seven listening sessions throughout Kansas City to learn what qualities residents want in their next police chief. The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce spearheaded the initiative.

“Our analysis of the community surveys indicates that residents’ strongest desires for a police chief center around community engagement and trustworthiness, perhaps even more than his or her ability to reduce rates of crime, though that is clearly still critically important to residents,” the executive summary of the group’s findings reads.

The findings from the series of listening sessions were released Tuesday during the monthly meeting of the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners. The police board will soon begin looking for a police chief to replace interim Chief Joseph Mabin, whom they appointed following the retirement of Rick Smith in April.

Board members say it could take up to a year before a permanent chief is named.

“It is our fervent hope that the report can be useful in providing healing stitches in the mending of our community that too often has been frayed at the seams,” Rev. Bob Hill, minister emeritus of Community Christian Church, said while presenting the results to the board Tuesday morning. “The people have spoken, and we will all be watching.”

Hill, along with Marjorie Williams, former Hickman Hills school superintendent, served as facilitators for the community listening sessions.

A news conference to further discuss the findings is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday following the regular Board of Police Commissioners meeting, which begins at 9:30 a.m.

The listening sessions

The series of seven listening sessions were designed to provide the board with feedback from residents across the city. About 350 people weighed in.

During those sessions, residents stressed the importance for the next police chief to promote transparency, accountability and aggressively address the gun violence and a soaring homicide rate that has plagued the city.

Homicides have generally risen over the past 20 years as community leaders grapple with solutions. Since 2000, Kansas City has recorded only five years where the number of homicides did not exceed 100. In 2020 had its deadliest year on record, with 182 killings; most were the result of gun violence.

Residents also said the new chief needs to address “perceived issues of underlying racism within the department,”

A yearlong investigation by The Star, published in March, showed that Black officers face rampant racism and discrimination in the department. Many Black officers say they are often singled out and subjected to unfair treatment and discipline.

Among the other top priorities:

Emphasis must be placed on de-escalation and racial bias training. The new police chief should prioritize mental health within both the community and inside the police department.

Improvements to the department’s internal investigation process needs to be re-examined and improved.

The next police chief should have the ability to navigate the city’s political landscape.

Community survey responses

In addition to the listening sessions, the coalition also received written surveys from more than 1,3190 members of the general public, more than half of whom said their priority was a chief focused on building community trust, holding the department accountable and reducing homicides and violent crime.

Holding police officers accountable was also among the top priorities for leadership qualities, alongside honesty and integrity and finding meaningful solutions to community problems.

Nearly half of those who took the survey said they want to see a new chief with experience in de-escalation techniques; this response came from east side residents in particular. Community members also overwhelmingly marked crime reduction and a practice of transparency among their top qualification priorities.

Some answers, while not ultimately top priorities citywide, varied by neighborhood. In the Northland, for example, had officer recruitment and retention among their top three responses, while residents on the city East Side, downtown and in midtown prioritized a chief who understands the history of bias and racism in U.S. policing.

KC officers’ survey

The department currently has more than 1,100 sworn officers. About 180 of them gave feedback. Honesty and integrity, fair and equitable leadership and someone who develops and invests in employees were among the top leadership qualities respondents said they want in their new boss.

As for the next chief’s priorities, 71% said they hope the next leader focuses on officer retention. More than half said they also want the next chief to prioritize improving police-community relations and reducing violent crime rates.

The top three qualifications echoed the surveyed officers’ other priorities: experience in recruitment and retention, transparency and openness and a record of reducing crime and promoting community safety. The fourth response, from about 40% of those surveyed, was for a chief who is “politically astute but not political.”

Only about a quarter of the officers surveyed said they prioritize a chief who values diversity at all levels, whereas more than half of the community members surveyed marked it. While about 40% of the community responses prioritized a chief qualified to promote community-oriented policing, only about 30% of KCPD officers responded the same way.

The lowest priority among KCPD members was a chief with protest experience. The lowest priority among community members was a chief who stays on budget.

Past Troubles

The next police chief will take over a police force that has been hampered by controversies for its handling of excessive use of force, the killing of Black men by police and unchecked gun violence.

Several civil rights and faith-based groups identified those reasons and demanded the police board replace Rick Smith.

The groups later petitioned the U.S. Department of Justice to launch an investigation of the police department’s patterns and practices.

Calls for Smith to be removed re-emerged following the Nov. 19 conviction of Det. Eric DeValkenaere who was found guilty in the shooting death of Cameron Lamb.

Days after the verdict, The Star reported that Smith was being forced out of his position as police chief. A memo addressed to Smith from board president Mark Tolbert and Mayor Quinton Lucas said that Smith’s last day would be April 22.

In its summary, the coalition sought to provide the police board with input from the community that would help guide them through their selection process.

“Overall, the new Chief needs to exhibit honesty, integrity, and transparency to help strengthen police and community relationships to effectively build trust and deliver successful and equitable public safety outcomes in the city,” the group said.

Mayor Lucas said the survey results prove there is a “groundswell of interest and concern” from community members around the future of the police department.

“It is important that we have, for example, a diverse workforce. It is important to make sure that we have trust and accountability, and I think we need to make sure that we’re centering the community’s viewpoint on that rather than just saying that we need status quo,” he said. “I think it’s clear from everyone that that is not wanted.”