KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas today introduced two pieces of legislation to vastly increase accountability for the Kansas City Police Department, to enhance police-community relations, and to make Kansas City safer. Co-sponsors include Third District at-Large Councilmember Brandon Ellington, Third District Councilmember Melissa Robinson, Fourth District at-Large Councilmember Katheryn Shields, Fourth District Councilmember Eric Bunch, Fifth District at-Large Councilmember Lee Barnes, Jr., Fifth District Councilmember Ryana Parks-Shaw, Sixth District at-Large Councilmember Andrea Bough, and Sixth District Councilmember Kevin McManus.

“Since the 1980s, when I was born, there have been 4,467 murders in Kansas City—nearly double the number of Americans killed in Afghanistan in 2001,” said Mayor Lucas. “Every single life we’ve lost to violent crime is a life lost too soon—and it was preventable. Doing the same thing we’ve been doing for generations—blank checks to the Police Department that get larger and larger each year without a prevention focus—has sadly not worked for the thousands of Kansas City families impacted by violent crime. We can’t just stand by a single day longer. Today, we are announcing a new course of action because we have to do better. We have to save lives.”

“More accountability to the people of Kansas City, with a focus on preventing and intervening in violent crime, is key to building a safer city,” continued Mayor Lucas. “The Kansas City Police Department is vital in this work, but we also need them to engage with us and our community on new solutions to a generational problem. The ordinances I am introducing today with the co-sponsorship of my colleagues reflect the mandate to Kansas City’s elected officials to decrease violent crime, to decrease negative police-community interactions, to decrease wasteful spending and instead to increase our neighborhoods’ safety and collaboration.”

“This is a refreshing change of course,” said Gwen Grant, President and CEO, Urban League of Kansas City and member of the Urban Council. “The Urban Council, and our Black Rainbow and Operation Liberation allies commend Mayor Lucas and the Council for taking this bold step to ensure that public safety tax dollars are used to directly address the root causes of violent crime and to make our community safer. It is time that the KCPD be held to account for their inefficient and ineffective expenditures, which have failed to substantively address the proliferation of violent crime in our community.”

The ordinances would amend the Kansas City FY21-22 Budget to fund the Kansas City Police Department to the 20 percent minimum of Kansas City’s general revenue compelled by the Missouri Legislature. The ordinances also reallocate the remainder of the previously-allocated Kansas City Police Department budget to a new Community Services and Prevention Fund and directs the City Manager to enter into a contract with the Board of Police Commissioners to provide certain community engagement, outreach, prevention, intervention, and other public services, including as necessary providing for an additional recruiting class to facilitate the provision of community services. Kansas City has similar contracts with a number of governmental entities including the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City, Visit KC, and the Kansas City Police Department itself in connection with parking enforcement.

The ordinances also provide an additional $3 million for a recruiting class to support prevention, intervention, and community services in a contract with the City.

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