As KC police shooting response is scrutinized, will state control prevent accountability?

As the Kansas City Police Department’s response to Wednesday’s mass shooting at the Chiefs rally is scrutinized in the coming days, the agency’s unusual governance structure could shield it from potential public pressure.

Kansas City remains the only city in Missouri that does not control its police force. The department is overseen by a five-member, mostly unelected board of police commissioners. Four are appointed by the governor and confirmed by state lawmakers. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas fills the remaining spot and is the sole elected member.

Republican Gov. Mike Parson, who has appointed every commissioner except Lucas, has praised the police response to Wednesday’s mass shooting, which killed one person and injured more than 20 others. KCPD is “one of the best police departments in the state. I think they will do their job,” the Republican governor said during a local radio interview on Thursday.

But many unanswered questions remain about the agency’s response and how nearly two dozen people were shot amid a deployment of hundreds of officers along the parade route and at the rally.

Whatever is determined about the police’s response, Kansas City’s lack of control over its own police force means the department doesn’t answer directly to elected officials besides Lucas. In turn, it is more insulated from public demands for accountability, whether in regards to a mass shooting or the city’s high number of homicides.

“There is no place for the average citizen of Kansas City, Missouri, to go to request a change for the police department where they then get to hold those in charge of the police department accountable,” said Sen. Greg Razer, a Kansas City Democrat whose district includes the Union Station shooting site.

KCPD and federal officials couldn’t have done much more during Wednesday’s shooting, Razer said. But state control makes it harder for citizens to hold their police department accountable.

“Let’s say we do see something,” Razer said of the police’s shooting response. “Who are they going to go to?”

State control of Kansas City police, which dates back to the post Civil War-era, has created a century-long struggle for power between state lawmakers and city officials. The unusual makeup largely prevents the city from deciding a wide array of law enforcement-related issues, including how much it should spend on police services.

Rep. Ashley Bland Manlove, a Kansas City Democrat, said that state control makes it harder for citizens to push changes to their city’s police force. But she said concerns about Wednesday’s shooting still stem from the state’s lax gun laws — not local control.

The Republican-controlled Missouri General Assembly has for years steadily relaxed gun restrictions across the state. The state ranks 38th in the country in terms of gun law strength, according to Everytown For Gun Safety, an organization that advocates for restrictions on firearms.

Gwen Grant, president of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, emphasized that the primary issue with the parade shooting centers on the General Assembly’s unwillingness to adopt stricter gun regulations. But Grant, who has pushed for Kansas City to be able to control its own police force, said the policies of the city’s police should be governed locally.

“Historically, it has been very difficult to advance policy changes in KCPD,” Grant said. “Because those individuals appointed by the governor really are not accountable to us.”

The state-controlled police board tends to align itself in ways that indicate their role is to serve the police department instead of overseeing the department on behalf of the citizens of Kansas City, Grant said.

State control is still supported by most Republican lawmakers, who frequently mention crime in Kansas City and the need to ensure that the city remains safe. Before the parade shooting, the city had just emerged from a year in which it broke its homicide record with 185 killings.

Rep. Bill Allen, a Kansas City Republican, said that he doesn’t think state control shields KCPD from public pressure, saying that the state takes policing seriously.

“If it were under local control, would it be more responsive to the crisis? I don’t think so,” he said. “To me, it’s just as impactful at the state level as it would be at the city level.”

Rep. Chad Perkins, a Bowling Green Republican, also pushed back on the idea, pointing to high crime rates in other cities that control their own police forces, such as St. Louis.

“The problem of course is there’s a violent nature among people,” he said. “What happened in Kansas City was terrible, but those cities have problems that I think, you know, ultimately, it certainly happens more frequently there.”

The arrangement of the state control of the Kansas City Police Department is highly unusual in that it requires the city allocate millions to local law enforcement but allows them no say in how that money is spent. That discrepancy faced renewed scrutiny in 2022, when voters across the entire state of Missouri overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure that forced Kansas City to spend more on its police department.

Razer, who made clear that he wasn’t speaking directly about Wednesday’s shooting, said he would support local control of KCPD once the city and Kansas Citians decide how to govern the department.

“If we start a new board, I want to make sure that everyone is bought in,” he said. “The Northland is bought in, south of the river is bought in, east of Troost, west of Troost, south Kansas City.

“Every part of the city has to be bought in or it can be a lot worse of a situation.”