Stacey Graves, who most recently served as acting deputy director of the Kansas City Police Department, has been sworn in as the department's next police chief. She was unanimously chosen by the Board of Police Commissioners for the top position during a closed door meeting Thursday.
Graves has served with the department for more than 25 years and will be the city's first female police chief to serve in a non-interim capacity.
However, the hiring process used by the Board of Police Commissioners was highly criticized due to a lack of transparency and input from the public — only one public meeting was held with the three finalists before the board made their decision. And the city has not hired an outside candidate for police chief in almost five decades.
Mayor Quinton Lucas told KCUR's Up To Date that he was opposed to closed-door meetings used in the hiring process. But he said Graves was the best choice of the candidates, and believes she can hit the ground running to address the city’s violent crime problem.
“We all were interested in at least new ideas, new voices, it was our view ultimately that Stacey Graves, although an internal candidate, did present a lot of those change ideas that could help Kansas City long term," Lucas said.
Ryan Sorrell, founder of the Kansas City Defender, said that the hiring of Graves is an "indictment" of the department.
“That means that she’s been there in positions of authority for the former regimes and did nothing to speak out against the blatant and pernicious racism, the violent misogyny, the coverups," Sorrell said.
- Peggy Lowe, KCUR investigative reporter
- Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas
- Ryan Sorrell, founder of the Kansas City Defender
