Kansas City and Missouri Grapple Over Police Control
Kansas City is the only Missouri city without local control of its police force and is believed to be the largest city in the U.S. in that situation.
Landwebs
A longstanding dispute between the leaders in largely Democrat-leaning Kansas City, Missouri, and the Missouri governor, who since 2017 has been a Republican, over who should control the city’s police department, hire the police chief or determine how the department spends its tax dollars is erupting this summer, the Associated Press reports. The two sides are preparing for a statewide vote in November on a constitutional amendment that would give the Republican-majority Legislature even more authority to set police funding.
A local advocate has sued on behalf of city taxpayers, arguing that allowing the state to control the city’s police force amounts to “taxation without representation” and discriminates against Kansas City’s large Black population, which experiences much of its violent crime. Kansas City, with a population of about 508,000, about 28 percent Black, is the only Missouri city without local control of its police force and is believed to be the largest city in the U.S. in that situation.
