Kansas City Missouri Police

The lawsuit filed by a KCPD officer places blame for quotas and racist patrol tactics on former Chief Rick Smith. Current Chief Stacey Graves says she will remind traffic division to “operate and enforce laws appropriately.”

Kansas City’s state-controlled police board is trying to use the courts to increase police funding. Advocates are worried it could strain the city's resources even further, while failing to improve police services.

Three officers on the Kansas City Police Department’s SWAT team are recovering in the hospital after being shot while serving a search warrant on Tuesday night. A nearly day-long standoff on Blue Ridge Boulevard ended with three people taken into custody.

Thousands of Kias and Hyundais were stolen in Missouri last year. The problem is so bad that two major insurance companies have ceased writing new policies for Kias and Hyundais built before 2023.

Mayor Quinton Lucas says the county cited costs in turning away a proposal to add a municipal jail to the $256.5 million Jackson County Detention Center. Now the city and county are spending “half a billion dollars on two jails potentially across the street from each other,” Lucas said.

Supporters of state control say the system was established to limit political influence on the police department in the 1930s. But the 150-year history of state control dates back to the Civil War.

Callers complain that they are being placed on hold or get a busy signal, which Mayor Quinton Lucas says “gives our community grave concern.”

After the Kansas City Police Department denied community claims of women missing along Prospect Avenue, Black community members are creating their own missing-persons databases other resources to find missing individuals.

KCPD Captain Danny Graves wrote that the prosecution of Eric DeValkenaere was “politically motivated” by Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker’s office. Asked if that meant there was a lack of trust between her and Baker, Chief Stacey Graves said she knows the importance of that relationship.

The Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners oversees a $268 million budget and regularly discusses important matters in closed session.

The Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners named a longtime department veteran as the new KCPD chief of police: Major Stacey Graves. However, the selection process was criticized by many in the community, including Mayor Quinton Lucas and the Urban League.

The Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners selected Stacey Graves, a 25-year veteran of the department, as the next police chief of the KCPD. But some community members remain critical of the hiring process.