Five Kansas City police officers are charged with crimes. All remain on paid duty

Seven months after a grand jury indicted Kansas City police detective Eric DeValkenaere in the 2019 shooting death of Cameron Lamb, the department veteran was back on the job and receiving a paycheck, The Star has confirmed.

Yet department policy says the police chief will put an employee facing criminal charges related to the use of his weapon on suspension without pay.

The fact that DeValkenaere is at work and being paid angers community leaders who have been critical of the department.

“I think it’s despicable,” said Randy Fikki, senior pastor of Unity Southeast, who led several Black Lives Matter demonstrations last summer.

DeValkenaere is one of five officers facing criminal charges who are still at work and being paid. He is assigned to the executive services bureau, which handles police budgeting, facilities, purchasing and building operations matters, among other things.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, who is a member of the Board of Kansas City Police Commissioners that has supervisory authority over the police department, said officers charged with felonies, such as DeValkenaere, should be suspended.

“If there is a crime against a person, particularly at the felony level, I think it is worthwhile that you do receive some suspension,” Lucas said. “With or without pay is an area of intrigue. I’d probably go with pay, believe it or not. I just believe in that due process sort of thing.”

DeValkenaere is the only one of the five facing charges from an incident involving a gun. He was charged with first-degree involuntary manslaughter after Lamb was shot to death in his backyard following a traffic incident. He was suspended with pay after the shooting, but returned to work in January.

Sgt. Matthew Neal was indicted last year on a felony assault charge for allegedly placing his knee on the back of a 15-year-old boy’s neck and forcing the boy’s head into the pavement while in handcuffs. Neal also is assigned to the executive services bureau.

Matthew Brummett and Charles Prichard both face felony assault charges for alleged excessive use of force when they arrested Breona Hill in May 2019. A video showed officers pinning her to the ground and slamming her head into the pavement. They too are assigned to the executive services bureau.

Nicholas McQuillen was charged earlier this year with misdemeanor assault for allegedly pepper spraying a teenager at last summer’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations near the Country Club Plaza. McQuillen is assigned to the patrol bureau.

All five officers are white. All the victims in the cases are Black.

Keeping charged officers on duty appears to be a departure from past practice within the department.

Darryl Forté, who was the chief from 2011 to 2017 and was the immediate predecessor to current chief Rick Smith, said officers charged with crimes during his tenure were placed on unpaid suspension.

“Under some circumstances community trust is further eroded if an officer is not suspended for egregious and criminal acts,” Forté told The Star. “Chief Smith has the authority to do whatever he desires regarding suspensions, even though the current practice has not been the norm during my entire tenure at the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department.”

The department’s policy regarding officers facing criminal charges stemming from the use of their department-issued firearms is clear on the department website.

“The Chief of Police will...[s]uspend a member without pay pending the outcome of criminal charges if the prosecutor files criminal charges or the grand jury returns a ‘True Bill.’”

When asked why DeValkenaere remained on duty, the department pointed to a different policy.

That policy, which is not included in the part of the KCPD website that lists policies and procedures, gives supervisors discretion on whether to suspend officers.

It says a member “may” be placed on suspension — paid or unpaid — due to a pending or completed investigation, or based on a supervisor’s judgment if it’s determined that a member remaining on duty is detrimental to the member or others, or would “reflect adversely upon the Department.”

KCPD said the policy requiring suspension without pay when criminal charges result from an officer’s use of their gun is under review, “both as part of a normal four-year review, and due to the fact that a different investigative process takes place now than when it was written.”

“That new process as well as other considerations that have come up in the last four years would all be taken into account with any proposed changes in the new version,” Capt. Leslie Foreman wrote in an email.

Lucas said the department’s policies need more clarity.

He wouldn’t address the DeValkenaere situation directly.

“I would think that we need to be consistent with the policies as produced,” Lucas said. “In all situations, to the extent that there is a departure, I find it very troubling. And I would hope, although not be optimistic, that the board would ensure that those policies are being followed.”

The presence of criminally charged officers working for KCPD while their cases remain pending rankled some policing experts and community members.

“Criminal charges raise serious concerns about an officer’s fitness to protect and serve,” said Lauren Bonds, legal director for the National Police Accountability Project. “The chief’s decision to allow officers to continue their employment while charges are pending needlessly exposes communities to abuse and undermines the prosecutor’s decision to pursue an indictment.”

Lora McDonald, executive director of Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity, or MORE2, said Smith ran KCPD with a “fraternity brother logic” that put the reputation of every officer at risk.

“I cannot conceive of any job — not retail, corporate, government or non profit — where an employee could be facing a conviction for assaulting a patron, client or customer and continue to be forward facing,” McDonald said, “let alone behind the scenes getting paid.“

Philip Stinson, a criminology professor at Bowling Green State University who has studied the occurrence of police officers who have been arrested and face criminal charges, said there’s wide variance across the country with how police departments handle members who have been charged with crimes.

He said department responses depend on a number of factors, including whether the incident giving rise to the charges occurred on duty or off duty, the nature of the allegations, as well as what state laws, department policies and collective bargaining agreements say.

“But if someone has been charged with a felony, they should generally have their police powers suspended,” Stinson said.

In his studies, Stinson regards an officer who has been reassigned to a desk job and away from the public as a suspension because officers working the street often don’t like the environment of an administrative job.

In the case of DeValkenaere, Brummett, Prichard and Neal, KCPD spokesman Sgt. Jake Becchina said they are working non-police administrative assignments.

McQuillen, the officer accused of pepper spraying a teenager on the Plaza, is on patrol duty.

“I just think an officer who’s facing misdemeanor charges for an on-duty incident involving a teenager, I just think that they’re an open target for people to mess with them while they’re on patrol,” Stinson said. “I just think that they’re damaged goods, to the extent that why do we need that officer on patrol?”

The Olathe Police Department’s handling of an officer charged with a crime would depend on the outcome of an immediate internal affairs investigation, Olathe spokesman Tim Danneberg said. Unlike KCPD, the Olathe Police Department is not a union police force.

“There would be an immediate and swift internal affairs investigation and appropriate steps would be taken up to and including termination,” Danneberg said. “We would not wait for the outcome of a court case.”

On the other end of the spectrum, Huntsville, Alabama, police officer William Darby was convicted earlier this year of murder for shooting a suicidal man to death as two other police officers tried to talk the victim out of taking his own life. Darby remained a paid employee with the Huntsville Police Department, even after his conviction, as recently as late May, according to a published report.

Critics of the Kansas City department said keeping charged officers on duty did not reflect well on KCPD.

The Rev. Darron Edwards established Getting to the Heart of the Matter, an initiative among churches in Kansas City to work with KCPD to establish trust with the community and reduce violence. Edwards, the lead pastor at United Believers Community Church, said disinterest and distrust were “resonating and reoccurring themes when it comes to Chief Rick Smith.”

“The sooner he and his entire (administrative) staff resigns, is removed, or relinquishes their positions, the faster we can move from walls that separate to a bridge that mends,” Edwards said. “Chief Rick Smith has one main mission and that is to protect and serve his officers, not the entire KCMO region.”