Terrible scorecard for Kansas City police ‘says it all,’ civil rights leaders declare

Angela Cordoba Perez
·4 min read

Community leaders on Friday said they were not surprised that the Kansas City Police Department ranked 495 out of 500 departments in a recent study by police accountability activists.

They said the Police Scorecard, a project by activist Samuel Sinyangwe and a team of data scientists and others from across the U.S., shines a light on problems of police violence and racial discrimination that they have been talking about for years.

The study —based on state and federal databases, public records requests to local police departments and media reports— found that between 2012 and 2020 Kansas City police had more killings per arrest than 98% of similar-sized departments nationwide.

In Kansas City, a Black person was 4.3 times more likely than a white person to be killed by police in the years 2013-2020, the research showed.

Gwendolyn Grant, president of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, said she was not surprised by the findings “at all.” She said her organization has tried to bring light to issues such as use of deadly force from the police and how it affects the Black community in Kansas City.

The report further validates those concerns, she said.

“We have consistently brought forward clear evidence that KCPD overpolices in the Black community, that they continue to employ broken window theory of policing, which is ineffective, that they consistently violate the civil rights of Black Kansas Citians, that they operate without transparency, and accountability, that the Board of police Commissioner’s refuses to hold the chief and the police department accountable,” Grant said. “So the report just pretty much says it all.”

Dr. Vernon Howard, Jr., president at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City, said the data in the study was shocking and appalling.

But, he said, it reflects the reality of how local law enforcement has failed many communities.

“This information that you see from an external, outside, independent source is reflective of the pain and the suffering that our communities undergo every day with law enforcement in this city.” Howard said.

Reached for comment Friday about the concerns of community leaders, Sgt. Jacob Becchina, a police spokesman, provided a written statement saying police officials reviewed the study and had concerns about its validity.

“A review of this data with our partners who professionally research and study the field of criminal justice leaves many questions about completeness, validity, and methods of information gathering, as well as comparison and analysis,” Becchina wrote in an email to The Star. “Those questions are not clearly answered, nor explained, on the website.”

Police complaints

The study concluded that from 2013-2019, more than half of arrests were for low-level offenses.

In those years, only 3% of the civilian complaints against the police were sustained, according to the report.

Community leaders said Kansas City as a whole, including the civic and business community, should be concerned about this report and the issues it highlighted. Grant said the civil rights leaders shouldn’t be left alone dealing with this matter.

“So something needs to be done,” Grant said. “And hopefully, this will be a wake up call to those who have just been silent while we’ve been making these claims over and over again, about just how extensive this problem is in Kansas City.”

Local activist Sheryl Ferguson said she had been in the fight for social justice since 2019 and the information from the report wasn’t new to her. But, she said, she hopes the study will serve to communicate it to Kansas Citians.

“I’m just thankful that now the city has a chance to read the truth and know the truth and get this truth outside of even someone like myself providing it so maybe they’ll actually read, listen and understand we have a police problem,” Ferguson said.

Based on his experience, Howard said he doesn’t expect the findings from the study to lead to a change.

“We have been making the case that there needs to be allocation of funds to get to the root causes of violence and crime, as opposed to increasing funds in an approach to law enforcement that no longer works, that is antiquated, and that is a failure,” he said.

“We’ve been saying this. There is no reason for us to have confidence that this report would change minds, change hearts. We hope and pray it does, but there is nothing that gives us confidence.”

Our goal is to create a safe and engaging place for users to connect over interests and passions. In order to improve our community experience, we are temporarily suspending article commenting

Recommended Stories

  • Retired Kansas City, Kansas Fire Department battalion chief dies after I-35 crash

    “It was a blessing to know him and we share in the grief and prayers of his family and friends,” Kansas City, Kansas Mayor David Alvey said.

  • Gunfire in Kansas City leaves 9-year-old with life-threatening injuries, police say

    “Please, I’m trying to go to the hospital,” a relative told officers. “My little brother was just shot. He’s 9.”

  • New study ranks Kansas City Police Department one of the worst in the country

    The Police Scorecard paints a picture of a department that uses more deadly force much more often and solves far fewer homicides than its peers. From Toriano Porter:

  • Trump Jeered On Twitter After Resurrecting His Weirdest 2020 Campaign Boast

    Who wants some more "person... woman... man... camera... TV"?

  • UN documents prisoners' torture, abuse in Ukrainian conflict

    Prisoners taken by the warring parties in the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine have endured systematic torture, sexual violence and other abuses, the United Nations human rights agency said in a report released Friday. The report issued by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that prisoners' abuse was particularly rampant in the initial stage of the seven-year conflict, but noted that it continues to this day. “Seven years since the outbreak of the conflict, it is unacceptable that such egregious human rights violation remain largely unaddressed,” said Matilda Bogner, Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.

  • Ghislaine Maxwell says Bill Cosby's freedom justifies dropping sex trafficking charges

    Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell said the overturning of Bill Cosby's 2018 sexual assault conviction justifies throwing out sex trafficking and other charges stemming from her relationship with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. Cosby, 83, was released from prison on Wednesday after Pennsylvania's Supreme Court said a prosecutor's 2005 agreement not to charge him with drugging and assaulting Temple University employee Andrea Constand meant the actor and comedian should not have been charged a decade later. In a Friday letter to U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan, Maxwell's lawyers said the British socialite's case was similar to Cosby's because she had been immunized under Epstein's 2007 nonprosecution agreement.

  • Firing upheld for officer who sought Breonna Taylor warrant

    The Kentucky police detective who sought the no-knock search warrant that led to the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor has had his firing upheld. The Louisville Metro Police Merit Board voted 4-0 on Wednesday to uphold the termination of Joshua Jaynes after hours of deliberation, news outlets reported. The decision came after three days of hearings in which Jaynes and his attorney sought his reinstatement.

  • California officer plays Taylor Swift song to keep video confrontation off YouTube

    “We have a code of conduct all officers must follow,” a department spokesman said. James Burch, policy director of the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP), and a group of protesters gathered outside the Alameda Courthouse in Oakland on Tuesday where they became the target of a police officer weaponizing YouTube’s copyright takedown policy. The advocates appeared on the courthouse steps to listen to a broadcast of the pre-trial hearing for police officer Jason Fletcher, who was charged with manslaughter in the fatally shooting of Steven Taylor, a Black man, inside of a Walmart last year, as reported by The Verve.

  • NYPD hunting for man involved in apparent broad daylight sexual assault of woman: Video

    The New York City Police Department is hunting for a suspect captured on video groping a woman in broad daylight on a borough sidewalk, authorities said.

  • Trip to the Dominican Republic turns into a vacation from hell: ‘We’ve lost everything’

    It was supposed to be an eight-day getaway, a chance for three South Florida brothers to reconnect with family living in the Dominican Republic amid coronavirus lockdowns and quarantine.

  • Police say criminal investigation of Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer 'bigger than we thought'

    The woman who has accused Bauer filed for a domestic violence restraining order on Tuesday.

  • Watch the moment a truck carrying thousands of pounds of illegal fireworks exploded in LA, injuring 16

    The bomb squad was loading the fireworks onto a trailer parked on a residential street when the explosion occurred.

  • Newborn among 19 missing kids rescued by U.S. marshals in New Orleans, feds say

    Officials said the baby boy was less than a month old.

  • Bundy was found guilty of trespassing at Idaho Capitol. Here’s what some Idahoans said.

    “Congratulations to the Ada County prosecution team, which obtained a result the United States government couldn’t: guilty,” wrote Twitter user @BadIdahoTakes.

  • This U.S. city has the highest share of superrich residents in the world — and it’s not San Francisco, New York or Seattle

    If you’re hoping to mingle with multimillionaires this summer, you can skip the Hamptons and Lake Como. Where you’re most likely to bump into an “ultra-high-net-worth” person, someone who’s worth more than $30 million, is San Jose, Calif., according to the latest Wealth-X World Ultra Wealth Report. San Jose, some 90 minutes by commuter rail south of San Francisco, tops the list of cities around the globe with the highest concentrations of ultrawealthy residents.

  • Man gets jail time for misbehaving in Yellowstone National Park

    An Indiana man was sentenced to 60 days imprisonment and banned from Yellowstone National Park for five years for what he did in the park.

  • Trump Organization and CFO Allen Weisselberg Charged With 15 Felony Counts in Tax Scheme

    The Trump Organization and longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg have been charged with 15 felony counts in what prosecutors call a long-running scheme to evade taxes, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday. Weisselberg, who was accused of evading taxes on $1.7 million in income and surrendered to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., pleaded not guilty and was released on his own personal recognizance. Trump Organization attorney Alan Futerfas stated after the arraignment that “political

  • Prosecutor: Honolulu police killing of Black man justified

    Honolulu police officers' use of deadly force was justified and no charges will be filed against them in a shooting that killed a Black man because an investigation found that he entered a home uninvited and physically attacked the officers, the city's prosecuting attorney said Wednesday. The April 14 shooting death of Lindani Myeni, 29, has drawn international attention, including from civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton, at a time when police violence in other parts of the U.S. have prompted protests over racial injustice. Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm said his office's investigation refutes those who said the shooting shows that despite Hawaii's multicultural diversity, police are racist.

  • 2 dead, 4 injured after gunman opens fire on city water employees in Spartanburg

    The suspected shooter is believed to be dead.

  • Ex-officer pleads guilty to manslaughter; family blasts deal

    The mother of a Black man fatally shot by a white former Nashville officer sobbed, screamed and knocked over a courtroom lectern Friday as she begged a judge not to accept a plea deal she says was struck in secret without her knowledge, a chaotic scene that briefly delayed the hearing before the judge accepted the agreement. Former officer Andrew Delke pleaded guilty to manslaughter over the death of Daniel Hambrick, 25, in 2018 as part of an agreement with prosecutors. Delke will serve a three-year prison sentence.