Kansas City strikes jaywalking law amid push to address racial disparities in policing

Kansas City’s elected officials have eliminated jaywalking and two other minor offenses amid a push to reform city laws that are disproportionately applied to people of color.

Sponsoring the legislation was Mayor Quinton Lucas, who has pointed to the changes as part of an effort to “decriminalize aspects of daily existence” for Kansas Citians and “eliminating our enforcement disparities by race at their foundations.” It cleared the City Council Thursday by a vote of 10-0.

The legislation strikes jaywalking from the city’s code of ordinances altogether. It also removes penalties for operating passenger vehicles, bicycles and “electric micromobility devices” — like the city’s rentable scooters — with dirty tires. And, it removes language that allows bicycles to be inspected by law enforcement in situations where “reasonable cause” leads police to believe the bicycle may be unsafe.

Passage followed a brief discussion in City Hall chambers after some concerns were raised by Councilman Brandon Ellington, 3rd District at-large, Councilwoman Ryana Parks-Shaw, 5th District, and Councilman Lee Barnes Jr., 5th District at-large. Their initial objections centered on the “dirty tires” provision and whether the legislation as presented would leave the door open for racial profiling during traffic stops.

A floor amendment was added stipulating that tickets for dirty tires may not be issued to those driving passenger vehicles under 12,000 pounds. That alleviated those worries, allowing for passage of the legislation without opposition.

As the new legislation made its way through City Hall, its proponents have chiefly focused on the pedestrian-level offenses and their impact on Black Kansas Citians.

During a committee hearing Wednesday, Jane Brown, the mayor’s general legal counsel, said there were about 123 citations issued for jaywalking in Kansas City over the past three years. Of those, 65% were issued to Black people and 34% were written to white people, she said.

Brown added that the majority of tickets, 83%, were issued to men versus 16% issued to women. When looking at all of the city’s pedestrian citation violations — jaywalking included — 54% of tickets were issued to Black people and 45% to white, Brown said.

Nearly 30% of Kansas Citians are Black, while about 55% of residents are white, according to recent census data. Another 10% are Hispanic or Latino.

As the proposal was drafted, the Kansas City Police Department and others raised concern over situations where drivers might face civil liability for striking a pedestrian in the road if the language outlawing jaywalking was removed, Brown said. She noted, however, there are other existing laws that fulfill that need.

Several local organizations, meanwhile, have voiced support for changing the laws in recent weeks.

KC Tenants and the Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance, for example, submitted written testimony to city leaders saying they supported the measure as “a step to limit” over-policing in the city’s Black and brown communities.

Andrea Clark, policy and planning manager at KC Healthy Kids, cited a 2017 Florida Times-Union and ProPublica investigation that found there was “no strong relationship” between where such tickets were issued and where pedestrians were killed in Jacksonville. Instead, the news outlets discovered that such laws targeted people in low-income neighborhoods.

“It is unreasonable to punish people for walking in the street when many neighborhoods lack safe and accessible sidewalks, especially in under-resourced and Black and Brown communities,” Clark wrote. “Instead, we should invest in the built environment to create streets and public spaces that are safe and accessible for users of all ages, abilities, and modes of transportation.”

The local chapter of the Sierra Club, an environmental organization, said Kansas City needed to ensure that alternative modes of transportation to vehicles “do not become tools of needless policing.”

Such over-policing has led to wrongful convictions, the Midwest Innocence Project wrote in its testimony supporting the proposal.

The organization cited the case of a Texas man whose photo was used in a police lineup after a rape — not because he was a suspect, but because he was previously photographed following a traffic violation. He spent 23 years in prison before DNA cleared his name.