Jay-Z’s Team Roc, Innocence Project request records on KCK police
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A social justice group with ties to a hip-hop legend is taking another step in its effort to expose alleged corruption in the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department.
Team Roc, the social justice division of rapper Jay-Z’s Roc Nation company, has partnered with the Midwest Innocence Project.
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The two organizations have submitted a Kansas Open Records Act request to the Unified Government for documents related to the KCK Police Department.
Team Roc and the Innocence Project are requesting records on any complaints filed against, internal investigations into, or disciplinary action against any member of KCKPD’s investigative division.
The organizations are also requesting some documents related to KBI or FBI investigations into the department.
That includes any complaints against multiple named employees, including former KCK Police Chief Terry Zeigler and former detective Roger Golubski.
Golubski is already facing explosive federal charges, including accusations of abuse of power and conspiring to run a sex-trafficking operation involving underage girls.
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Their request comes one year after Team Roc hosted a rally in Kansas City, Kansas, calling for the U.S. Justice Department to launch a pattern-or-practice investigation into the agency.
They aren’t the only groups calling for a DOJ investigation.
Just this week, the social justice group MORE2 renewed its calls for a federal investigation into the police department.
The organization argued misconduct isn’t limited to Golubski but has become a department-wide practice, leaders said.
After Team Roc’s rally last year, Wyandotte County designated funds to digitize nearly 70 years of criminal court case files.
But Team Roc argues there hasn’t been any transparency or updates since then.
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“The Kansas City, Kansas community cannot continue to wait for accountability and justice,” Team ROC managing director Dania Diaz said in a release.
“It’s been a year since the #JusticeForKCK rally, and local citizens have yet to receive anything other than lip service regarding over three decades worth of trauma. Local and national leaders must continue to hold the police department accountable for viciously abusing their power.”
Team Roc and the Midwest Innocence Project are calling for transparency. That’s why they issued their records request.
“Until there is full transparency into the breadth and extent of wrongdoing committed at the hands of KCKPD Police Officers, there can be no accountability and, in turn, no justice,” Midwest Innocence Project Executive Director Tricia Rojo Bushnell said in a release.
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“Despite the growing mountain of evidence of officer misconduct, the Unified Government has yet to open its files and invite an independent and transparent review of these injustices. Today’s request makes clear the community cannot and should not wait. What the Unified Government will not give, we will continue to demand.”
Under state law, the Unified Government must respond within three business days. However, the UG can say it will take additional time to produce the records requested.
