Who should be Kansas City’s next police chief? You should have a say

South KC Perspective

By John Sharp

The KCMO Board of Police Commissioners will soon begin the task of selecting who will fill one of the most important – if not the most important – public positions in the city, the Police Chief for the Kansas City Police Department.

Current Chief Stacey Graves, a 29-year veteran of the department and its first female chief in a non-interim capacity who began her new duties as chief in December of 2022, recently announced her pending retirement.  She is the department’s 48th chief.

Persons may email the Police Board at BOPC@kcpd.org and express their views about what experience, qualities and skills are most important for the new chief to possess.

Members of the Board are President Madeline Romious, Scott Boswell Sr., Mayor Quinton Lucas, Heather Sicks and Tom Whittaker. 

I personally feel it is of utmost importance for the Board to promote from within since I know KCPD has many highly qualified commanding officers who are very familiar with recent crime trends and the skills of the department’s officers.

Continuing the department’s recent progress in reducing homicides during Chief Graves’ tenure is too important to risk stalling such progress in saving lives by bringing in someone from outside the area who will need months to come up to speed with what’s what and who’s who.

Not promoting from within also would be bad for morale and officer retention in KCMO’s already under-staffed department which competes to retain highly skilled senior officers with several other area departments that pay higher salaries and where officers face less danger.

During Chief Graves’ relatively brief tenure as chief, as of August 10 in recent years, homicides have gone down significantly from 123 year-to-date homicides in 2023 to only 77 this year.  Only 11 of this year’s homicides have been in South Patrol.

The vast majority of this year’s KCMO homicides were committed with handguns, and approximately half of them were the result of arguments.

The Telegraph will publicize future meetings of the Board to discuss the selection of the new chief and opportunities for public input in the process.

Senior Services now offered through the county

Shepherd Center CEO Janet Baker at the South Kansas City Alliance meeting promotes the senior services now offered by the county.Services designed to allow older adults to age in place safely in their homes such as home-delivered meals provided at little or no cost to adults over 60 in the metropolitan
area by the non-profit KC Shepherd’s Center with offices at 9200 Ward Parkway were explained by Janet Baker, executive director of the Center, at the well-attended August
10 public meeting of the South Kansas City Alliance. The Center serves older adults in Cass, Clay, Jackson & Platte Counties in Missouri and Johnson County in Kansas.
Persons interested in such services or in volunteering with the organization may contact the Center at 816-444-1121 or at info@kcshepherdscenter.org.