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Kansas City Police is seeing more officer recruitment after years of slow hiring

A person wearing a police uniform sits inside a radio studio. She is gesturing with both hands and talking at a microphone.
Carlos Moreno
/
KCUR 89.3
Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves talks about officer recruitment and on KCUR's Up To Date on Oct. 7, 2025.

The Kansas City Police Department has struggled to recruit new officers for years, especially after protests against misconduct and racism. But Chief Stacey Graves says a record number of new recruits graduated into the department in August, and next year’s class is similarly robust.

Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves says her department is finally seeing an increase in recruiting numbers.

At the end of August, the department employed around 1,200 law enforcement officers, between those on the street and those in the academy. That’s up more than 100 from previous years, Graves told KCUR’s Up To Date.

The KCPD — which is controlled by the state of Missouri, not Kansas City leaders — has long struggled to recruit new officers, which Graves traces back to “anti-police rhetoric” in 2020. In Kansas City and around the country, mass Black Lives Matter protests brought attention to police misconduct and officer killings of unarmed civilians.

“This has been a nationwide challenge for law enforcement officials,” Graves said. “You know, we’re slowly making a comeback, and we’re seeing that in Kansas City, too.”

In 2022, the U.S. Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation into the KCPD’s hiring practices after allegations of racism and harassment against Black officers.

The department still isn’t at full strength. Graves said the KCPD would need 1,400 total officers on its roster to get there. But she says January’s class of recruits could be record-breaking, too.

Graves joined Up To Date to discuss officer numbers, as well as the strength of the 911 system, first response drones and more.

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When I host Up To Date each morning at 9, my aim is to engage the community in conversations about the Kansas City area’s challenges, hopes and opportunities. I try to ask the questions that listeners want answered about the day’s most pressing issues and provide a place for residents to engage directly with newsmakers. Reach me at steve@kcur.org or on Twitter @stevekraske.
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