Kansas City police unveil new room for officers to interview survivors of sexual assault

When survivors of sexual assault and trauma have gone to the Kansas City Police Department in the past, they’ve recounted their painful experiences to police in a plain, gray room with a whiteboard and hard plastic chairs. The same room was used to interview anyone, survivors and suspects alike.

To help survivors feel more comfortable during police interviews, the department unveiled a new room Thursday at police headquarters, 1125 Locust St., that’s adorned with soft, pink armchairs that swivel, a patterned rug and lamps that replace the fluorescent overhead lighting.

“Everyone wants to feel safe,” said Tye Grant, president of the Police Foundation of Kansas City, which helped fund the project. “The health of our police department is vital to the health of our community.”

The goal is to help survivors feel they’re in a living room rather than a police interrogation room, according to Project Beloved: The Molly Jane Mission, a Texas-based nonprofit that partners with law enforcement agencies like KCPD to install the “soft interview rooms.”

Tracy Mathesan and Becky Halterman created the nonprofit in 2018, a year after Mathesan’s daughter Molly Jane Mathesan was raped and murdered inside her Fort Worth, Texas, apartment by Reginald Kimbro, who was also accused of other rapes, but never charged. Before police had enough evidence to charge Kimbro, he sexually assaulted and killed another woman, Megan Getrum, nine days later.

In 2022, he pleaded guilty to killing Mathesan and Getrum and raping four other women. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Since then, the sisters have worked to advocate for sexual assault survivors. Through research on trauma-informed care, they decided to start their effort to create soft interview rooms in law enforcement agencies across the country. The nonprofit creates about two rooms each month.

Providing a comfortable environment with warm colors can help survivors feel emotionally and physically safe and improve the interview process, said Halterman, vice president of Project Beloved’s board.

Each item in the room was chosen to help survivors feel more comfort than they would in a typical police interview room. While they tell their stories, they can swivel the chairs to self-soothe, or grab a weighted or throw blanket to feel more comfortable. The walls are adorned with nature photos taken by Getrum, who was a photographer and artist.

Survivors have reached out to Project Beloved since they started creating the soft interview rooms, saying the decor and design helped them feel more comfortable and that the experience was different than what they expected from a police interview, Halterman said.

Law enforcement officials have also told the nonprofit that having a separate space helps them change their approach and shift their mindset when talking to survivors.

The police foundation is in talks with the department about funding a second soft interview room.