Missouri AG Eric Schmitt files brief backing KC police board in budget fight with city

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a brief Thursday opposing a measure that gives Kansas City more control over the police department’s budget.

Schmitt argued that state law gives the Board of Police Commissioners control over the police department and its budget.

“Attempts to defund the police will deprive Kansas City residents of a needed police presence and exacerbate homicide and violent crime rates plaguing Kansas City and major cities across Missouri and the country,” Schmitt said in a news release.

The police board filed a lawsuit in May in Jackson County Circuit Court after the City Council approved a measure cutting the police budget back to 20% of the city’s general fund, the minimum required by state law.

The savings of $42.3 million would be reallocated to a newly devised community fund to address mental health, conflict resolution and crime prevention strategies.

The City Council’s move was lauded by local organizations who said it would give the community a voice in spending taxpayer dollars.

However, the police board has said it would disrupt services and has said the measure is an effort at “defunding” the police.

The city has said the plan does not cut the budget, but shifts control over the money from the board to the city.

Both sides believe their way will better address violent crime in Kansas City. The city suffered its deadliest year on record in 2010 with 182 homicides.

Schmitt’s brief said the city’s plan will reduce personnel in the city’s central and east patrol divisions, which is where the majority of murders last year occurred.

“When police withdraw from the front lines, either by defunding or political pressure, it harms at-risk communities,” Schmitt’s statement said.

But advocates for the plan said reallocating money to community services would better address the root causes of violent crime.

“I think it finally gives the people of Kansas City some accountability of policing activities in their city,” Mayor Quinton Lucas said in an interview in May.

“I hope it compels the police department to engage more actively in a lot of our newer approaches to violence prevention. … I hope it encourages the board of police commissioners to build a more collaborative relationship with the City Council of Kansas City and frankly the people of Kansas City.”