Gov. Parson missed a chance to build bridges with new Kansas City police board member | Opinion

Once again a Missouri governor has shown Kansas Citians who’s boss.

Gov. Mike Parson just appointed a new member of the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners without much consideration for what Kansas City residents want. But Parson can do that because the police board is under state — not local — control.

We agree with activist pastor Darron L. Edwards that the new appointee, Thomas Whittaker, executive vice president and chief legal officer for J.E. Dunn Construction, “is a great human being.” But Edwards raises the right issue about this new appointee, named to replace Don Wagner, who left the police board at the end of 2022: “The question must be asked if he is a great fit for a board of police commissioners.”

Mayor Quinton Lucas, the only police board member not appointed by a governor, whiffed on that question by not using this appointment as another opportunity to push for local control. Instead, he tweeted this: “Tom Whittaker is a friend. So long as a Board of Police Commissioners exists in our city, Tom is someone who will work to build a more collaborative relationship between the Board and all voices in our community. He also shares my commitment to making Kansas City safer for all.”

As The Star’s Glenn E. Rice reported, faith leaders and civil rights activists often have criticized the police board for its handling of former Police Chief Rick Smith, who, they charged, protected officers accused of killing Black men and of using excessive force against people of color. Under Smith, many city residents complained — with good reason — that the police often seemed like an authoritative, invasive presence instead of a force for peace and justice. Activists also say that Parson ignored their demands to replace Wagner with someone from Kansas City’s East Side or someone who would hold fellow commissioners and the department accountable.

Lora McDonald, executive director of the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity or MORE2, makes a good point about this appointment and why it’s so problematic: “We deserve our police board to look like a board of people we would elect as a city. Think about it, in those same two decades, we have only had one white guy as mayor.”

Kansas Citians should feel grateful that people like Tom Whittaker are willing to volunteer to serve the public. But as long as local residents have no say in who makes up the police board, they should work to change this old and broken system.

The last time City Hall controlled the police board and department was in the era of political boss Tom Pendergast, and that connection led to so much corruption that, as the police department’s own website describes the situation, “In 1939, Missouri Attorney General Roy (McKittrick) came down hard on the corruption generated by the Pendergast Political Machine. Missouri Governor Lloyd Stark had the police department returned to state control under commissioners that he appointed. Thus was reinstated the original form of KCPD governance — a governor-appointed Board of Police Commissioners, and it’s the system used today. (An historical note: this new Board in 1939 appointed a new police chief, Lear B. Reed, and charged him with rooting corruption out of the force. About 50 percent of KCPD employees were fired at that time.)”

So no system will automatically produce the kind of police department Kansas City deserves, but all these years later, state control feels like a dictatorial system radically out of touch with the electorate.

And yet it must comfort Gov. Parson to note that the people who live here, judging by voter turnout in local elections, don’t seem to care much who runs the city. In the April 4 election, for instance, not even 14% of registered voters cast ballots. That puts zero pressure on the state to let Kansas Citians control their own police department. And yet that’s exactly what should happen to avoid a police board that looks almost nothing like the population.