6 days after KCK police killed a man, KCPD is silent. How can we trust investigation? | Opinion

We wish we could say with a degree of certainty that we can trust the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department’s handling of an investigation into how a traffic stop ended in the shooting death of 25-year-old Amaree’ya Henderson of Kansas City.

Why should we — or any resident of Wyandotte County — have confidence in the agency’s decision to hand the investigation into Henderson’s death across the state line to Kansas City, Missouri, police?

We don’t, and for good reason. The KCPD can’t be trusted to investigate its own officers when they’re involved in fatality shootings.

After years of turning a blind eye to egregious acts committed by its own personnel, the department finally agreed to give the Missouri State Highway Patrol authority to investigate on-duty police shootings.

That arrangement, while welcome, isn’t immune from criticism. Too often, the public is still left with more questions than answers when an encounter with law enforcement turns fatal.

Henderson wasn’t armed, family members contend. His girlfriend was a passenger in the car. At the time he was struck by bullets, she was talking to Henderson’s mother using the FaceTime video chat app.

A KCPD spokesman said a “confrontation ensued” before officers shot their weapons. But did Henderson pose a threat to officers by attempting to flee a traffic stop last week?

An investigation will determine that. Will the inquiry be totally independent and free of bias? We have questions.

We echo the calls of social justice advocates in Kansas City, Kansas: For accountability purposes, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation must review the shooting.

Kansas City, Kansas Police Chief Karl Oakman was hired from the Kansas City, Missouri police department. The potential for conflict is obvious.

Neither Oakman or the officers under his leadership can conduct an impartial investigation.

Henderson’s family doesn’t trust the police department to look into the fatal encounter. And who can fault them?

In too many officer-involved shootings, the police version of what occurred doesn’t pass the smell test. In Henderson’s killing, we have still learned little from Kansas City, Missouri police officials about the traffic stop that led to the death of the DoorDash food delivery worker.

Another hard fact is easy to ignore but shouldn’t be: An unarmed Black man was killed by police and the public must rely on KCPD, a police agency with its own dubious record of fatal police encounters, to present its findings to the Wyandotte County District Attorney.

Inherently, that is a bad idea.

Five days after Henderson was shot, we still didn’t know who the officers were that pulled the trigger, how long they have been on the force, or whether they have a history of on-duty use of force incidents.

Did officers violate police department policy by shooting into a moving vehicle, a practice frowned upon by national law enforcement experts? According to department policy, that step can be taken if the vehicle is a threat to them or others, KCK police officials said.

Did Henderson use his car as a deadly weapon against police? If that contributed to the incident, the public deserves to know.

Where’s Oakman, the KCK police chief, anyway? He cannot duck from accountability. His officers shot and killed a man under questionable circumstances, and the city’s top cop is hiding behind generic statements and press releases from his staff.

We have questions for him about the process for the Kansas City Police Department to investigate the shooting, a practice that began late last year as part of an agreement between the two agencies.

On its website, Kansas City, Kansas Police Department policies are posted for all to see. Residents should have access to information about the way police conduct business, law enforcement officials said.

But almost a week later, why can’t the public at least learn which officers fatally shot Henderson?

Silence from law enforcement officials sows distrust in the community they serve. We would like to see a citizen review committee with real power established for each department on both sides of the state line.

That would take time. Here, the people just want some simple, direct answers. And now.