Oscar Cabral’s death made it look like KC police don’t care. Fix missing person policies | Opinion

Most people have loved ones. And when one of those loved ones goes missing, it’s always a family emergency. It’s also a crisis for the entire community — except when law enforcement signals that it doesn’t really care.

The disappearance and death of 18-year-old Oscar E. Cabral is the latest instance of what appears to be subjective concern on the part of the Kansas City Police Department. Last week, Cabral’s body was found by utility workers off a wooded trail near Swope Park. Police cite “suspicious” circumstances surrounding his death, and have opened a homicide investigation.

For decades, people of color have expressed outrage over the disproportionate amount of police violence directed at them, with particular emphasis on profiling and targeting of minority groups. Because of those patterns, it’s no wonder those communities don’t always view police as a trusted source of protection.

And recent revelations show why. The KCPD’s own data shows that force is deployed disproportionately against people of color. A longtime Kansas City traffic enforcement officer has sued the department in Jackson County Circuit Court, alleging that he was instructed to target Black neighborhoods to write more tickets. The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into whether Black police employees are discriminated against here.

And those are just the public reports of how law enforcement treats Kansas Citians of color unequally. On top of that are the anecdotal, generational instances that can make even the most law-abiding minority residents feel insecure.

All of this contributes to a shaky trust when our neighbors in marginalized communities have to initiate interactions with the police.

When Oscar went missing on March 3, loved ones worried and looked for him the way most people do when someone they care about disappears. Family members finally reported his disappearance to authorities on March 18. Police are supposed to assist us in distress and protect us from harm. In making the report, those concerned about Oscar’s well-being put their trust in law enforcement.

The department took the report, but didn’t bother posting Oscar’s photo on social media or sending out a news release to ask for the public’s help in finding him.

The police have criteria to meet before they initiate an active missing person case, and they say this one didn’t meet those guidelines. But as The Star’s Glenn E. Rice and Matti Gellman have reported, the KCPD has a very real confidence deficit with the Black community — built up over many years — based on concerns about how seriously reports of disappearances are treated. Critics claim the department doesn’t follow best practices to inform neighbors and enlist their help. After all, people who know the missing might be best equipped to help bring them back home.

The bottom line is that the police have more subjectivity than they want to admit.

What are the solutions to making sure that Kansas Citians and law enforcement are on the same page? For one, put less choice into the equation — or at the very least, more clearly define the bar someone has to jump over to report a missing person. Social media is free and widely used. The department should be willing to post and revise information quickly in these cases.

A KCPD policy of promptly adding names to the Justice Department’s National Missing and Unidentified Persons System clearinghouse should be an automatic must-do, too.

Finally, creating a public dashboard of data about local missing person cases and their investigations could go a long way toward transparency and reassuring the community that everyone’s safety really matters to the police.

Oscar Cabral’s death is a tragedy for everyone who knew and loved him. The police department’s apparent indifference to their plight only added to the heartache — and it certainly didn’t help reassure Kansas City’s minority communities that law enforcement is always on their side.