Mayor Lucas wants to raise KCPD officer pay — and identify which city they live in

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said he plans to introduce a resolution during Tuesday’s monthly Board of Police Commissioners meeting to identify incentives that would encourage police officers to live in the city’s most distressed neighborhoods.

A second resolution would have the department identify money in its current operating budget that would fund salary increases for officers.

The measures would also require the police department to identify which city officers currently live in.

“I love KC and believe the lion’s share of our officers do too,” Lucas said in a tweet posted early Tuesday. “I hope an effort to provide them adequate raises (which should never have been withheld), consistent with City employees, and a residential incentive tied to communities we serve is a better path than that pursued.”

The police board is expected to vote on a policy that would allow its officers, non-police workers and reserve officers to live outside the city. If approved, that would include Wyandotte and Johnson counties in Kansas. In those counties and on the Missouri side of the state line, officers would be permitted to live within 30 miles of the city limits.

The measure comes after the Missouri General Assembly earlier this year approved a measure lifting the long standing police residency requirement. The new law allows Kansas City officers to live within 30 miles of the city limits. The local police board maintains the authority to expand the boundaries of where officers, police staff and reserve officers can live.

Lucas had long opposed the change and plans to have the policy pulled from the consent agenda and have the entire board discuss the measure in open session.

The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 99 supported the measure and said loosening the residency requirement would help recruitment and retention.

Under the Lucas’s proposal, the police department would work with city officials to identify potential incentives for Kansas City officers who live in or would be willing to relocate in “high violence, distressed, and under served areas.”

The measure would also requires the police department to provide a comprehensive report that would include ZIP codes where active duty police currently live. The report must be submitted by Aug. 31, according to the resolution.

“We have invested a lot on the command staff side and spent much time considering preferred communities outside our own,” Lucas wrote. “Let’s pursue the best paths for fairness to those there now and for all Kansas Citians.”

In previous years, the police board has approached local banks and other financial institutions to devise ways to give police officers and other public safety workers assistance and incentives to purchase homes in the urban core.

During a police board meeting last year, police union president Brad Lemon admitted to commissioners that some officers rent trailers and keep two homes to skirt rules that require them to live within the city limits.

Prior to the new state law, Kansas City sworn officers were required to reside in the city for one year before beginning their employment, and civilian workers have nine months to relocate into the city. They also had to live within city limits for as long as they work for the police department.

The second measure would require the police department to conduct a budget and spending analysis to identify additional money for officer pay raises.

Lucas noted that the police board approved an annual budget that did not include pay increases or cost of living adjustments for officers.