‘They told him they have the votes’: KCPD Chief Smith being forced to resign at last
At a meeting at City Hall on Tuesday morning, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and Police Board President Mark C. Tolbert told Police Chief Rick Smith that they had the votes to fire him. Instead, he’s being allowed to resign in March.
“It’s a necessity; had to happen,” said a member of the Kansas City Council, who said that the third vote came from the newest member of the police board, Northlander Dawn Cramer. She deserves a lot of credit for stepping up to do the right thing for the entire city.
‘They told him they have the votes,” said another council member.
The KCPD put out a statement saying Smith had always planned to retire at some point in 2022, and would announce the exact date later.
As usual, that was highly misleading.
“That’s Rick Smith trying to put a positive spin on his termination,” said Urban League President Gwen Grant. “Unfortunately, we have to put up with him through March.” The Urban League’s police accountability task force has been pushing for his firing since June of last year. We on The Star’s editorial board have been calling for Smith’s ouster since July of 2020.
The single silver lining of the delay in his departure is that the city can now do a thorough national search for his replacement, who has got to come from outside the department.
But by evening, Smith was telling allies and an anchor at Channel 9 that he’s not going anywhere. So when he does go, it will be without ever acknowledging the disaster that his high-crime and highly controversial tenure has been.
And even when he does pack up his office, this can’t be the end of the story, but only the beginning.
Under new leadership, the department will have a chance to update its policies and practices and build a new relationship with Black Kansas Citians who have had no reason to trust the department under Smith.
DeValkenaere manslaughter conviction not the only problem
The immediate impetus for his departure was Friday’s manslaughter conviction of Detective Eric DeValkenaere. The police chief — charged with protecting the public — instead protected the officer who shot Cameron Lamb to death, nine seconds after running into Lamb’s own backyard, in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. Smith failed this city, and has been doing so for some time.
His successor will have quite a job on his or her hands, cleaning up what Grant rightly calls the “hot mess” Smith will leave behind. Smith not only backed DeValkenaere, but every officer, no matter what he or she had done. Under him, there was no such thing as a bad police shooting.
But the current chief was both a cause and a symptom of an insular police culture that disdains self-examination and reform. “The mission of the Kansas City Missouri Police Department is to protect and serve with professionalism, honor and integrity,” the department says. Too many times, for too many people, the reality has been quite different.
Parts of the police force are laced with racism. Prejudice and bigotry have no place in the department, and they must be torn out, now, no matter what it takes.
Kansas City police have had one Black chief in their history. No woman has ever served as chief. The Board of Police Commissioners should look as far and as hard as necessary to make sure all qualified candidates are considered for this post.
The department must also discard its traditionalist approach. “We’ve always done it this way” can no longer be the department’s explanation for a no-questions-asked “back the blue” mentality.
Board should review department policies
While the search for a new chief is underway, the police board and the city should begin a broad review of policy policies and procedures. This study should include:
▪ A full, public review of the Cameron Lamb killing, including a study of allegations of planted evidence at the scene of the crime.
▪ Changes in department policy regarding suspension of officers under criminal indictment.
▪ Changes in department policy regarding statements from officers suspected of crimes, or those involved in shooting incidents.
▪ Independent review of police brutality complaints.
▪ An audit of department payouts for civil settlements involving brutality claims, and a full public discussion of sanctions for officers found liable in those disputes.
▪ A review of past efficiency studies, and Smith’s failure to implement them.
▪ A firm understanding of the 20% threshold for city financing of the department, with concrete agreements between the department and the City Council for amounts in excess of the threshold.
▪ A framework for local control of the department.
The new chief, the police board and the City Council should then conduct a joint session to discuss findings and recommendations, with implementation before the budget year begins on May 1.
We continue to support local control of the department, but signs of the police board’s new independence are a welcome surprise.
If the board and the City Council conduct a good faith review of the police, and a new chief begins work on internal reform, Kansas City could get on a path toward a better relationship between officers and the public, and toward less crime as well. These problems have always been related.
If not — if this opportunity is missed — the dysfunction of the department will continue, even without Rick Smith.
Cameron Lamb’s death should never have happened, but it can still have meaning. It can mark the turning point in the history of the Kansas City Police Department, and the history of the city its officers are supposed to serve.
