Kansas City police can learn a lot from Omaha about being transparent with the public | Opinion

If not for reporting by The Kansas City Star, we probably would not have known for quite some time that Kansas City police officer Blayne Newton was involved in a fatal shooting for the second time in three years.

And that seemingly intentional omission strategy does not serve well the best interests of the Kansas City Police Department nor those its officers were sworn to protect.

Sidenote: How many more people does Newton have to kill or assault before he finds another profession? Seriously. We must question if Newton or any law enforcement official responsible for multiple on-duty deaths or facing multiple claims of using excessive force is fit to serve in our community.

In 2020, Newton killed Donnie Sanders, an unarmed Black man. If you’re keeping a running tally, that’s three on-duty deaths in three years.

“In prior cases of clear excessive force involving this alleged officer we called for his arrest; the system said no,” said Vernon Howard, leader of the Kansas City chapter of the Southern Conference Leadership Council. “We called for charges; the system said no. We called for his dismissal; the system said no. Who will provide witness information to a law enforcement agency which chronically leaves known abusers on the force to kill us?”

Far too many times, we are left with more questions than answers when Kansas City police officers use lethal force. Yes, every officer involved in a deadly or on-duty incident deserves due process. Investigations take time. How difficult could it be to tell us who the officers who fire their service weapons are, along with their age, rank and years of service? It isn’t.

Withholding basic information in the aftermath of a tragic shooting does little to improve community relations. To build trust, this agency must provide a higher level of transparency than it has ever before.

Unless an officer is charged with a crime or named in a lawsuit, rarely does the public get a firsthand account of who is violating department policy or breaking the law. As a publication, we have a duty to highlight law enforcement officials such as Newton who have killed multiple people while in uniform.

Police may have not released Newton’s name, but dogged reporting by The Star’s Glenn Rice produced three sources close to the case who confirmed the officer’s identity.

Naming Newton is just, because the public has the right to know who problem officers are. Officials in nearby Omaha told us as much during a recent visit there. After activists fought for years for reform in that city, systems were put in place to hold law enforcement officials accountable for their work in public.

Per department policy, within days of a use-of-force incident involving Omaha police, officers are publicly identified — a 21st-century policing strategy endorsed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. That’s what happened in the case of Omaha police captain Jay Leavitt and lieutenant Owen Gregg, who fired their weapons at a man shooting at others just last week. After investigators found the lawmen’s testimony consistent with the evidence, the pair and another officer on the scene, lieutenant Dan Martin, were cleared this week to return to duty.

When it comes to implementing best practices, the Kansas City Police Department continues to fall woefully short.

Nebraskans are privy to a statewide public database of serious cases of police misconduct such as repeated use of excessive force, perjury or sexual assault, among other unlawful acts.

Nebraska state law requires a grand jury inquiry into all officer-involved shootings. In Omaha, in addition to internal investigations, the state highway patrol and the local sheriff’s office take the lead in use-of-force probes.

In pro-cop Missouri, we doubt the General Assembly would take those lessons on accountability and transparency within law enforcement and create such a misconduct list.

To improve community relations, Kansas City, much like its close neighbor, must reconsider how it responds to deadly police shootings. As we saw last week in Omaha, transparency and accountability within the police department are not only attainable, but sound public policy.