The Kansas City Police Department is essentially run by two people: Chief Rick Smith and police union president Brad Lemon.
The five-member Board of Police Commissioners is nominally in charge, but guess what? With the exception of Mayor Quinton Lucas, they are a rubber stamp for the chief.
I’ve written extensively about how bad Smith has been in his three years as chief. Murders are at an all-time high, and Smith has not come up with a substantive plan to combat the violence; his officers overreacted on several occasions during the recent Black Lives Matter protests in and around the Plaza; and, most important, he has no relationship whatsoever with the Black community. He’s beloved in the near-lily-white Northland and detested on the East Side.
Because he’s the chief, the spotlight shines brightest on Smith. Every bit as bad as Smith, however, is Lemon.
It has come out in recent days that as an officer, the former police chief accused him a few years ago of significant impropriety in a criminal case. (That investigation appears to have withered away under Smith.) And now, in a story published today in The Star, Lemon has been exposed as having used his position to attempt to pressure an individual on a personal matter.
The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday released an audio recording that captured Lemon threatening the owner of a tow company if he did not release a car belonging to relatives of Lemon.
The audio demonstrates an astounding abuse of power by a police officer in dealing with a citizen. The Prosecutor’s Office did not specify the date of the call, but it apparently was sometime in 2019.
You can listen to the conversation here and you can read about the prosecutor’s investigation into the tow-company owner here (he was cleared), but I want you to read some of the key excerpts between Lemon and Allen T. Bloodworth, owner of a company called Private Party Impound.
Brad Lemon
Lemon: “Hey this is Brad Lemon out of Kansas City Police Department. I’m president of the police union. I got a phone call from my niece that says you guys towed our family’s car from Two Light and now you’re requiring us to go get a…
Bloodworth: “We’re requiring you to comply with the law to get the car back. Correct. The owner of the vehicle is someone’s grandmother or something?”
Lemon: “Yeah she’s two hundred miles away.”
Bloodworth: “OK. The Kansas City Missouri tow lot wouldn’t release the car the way the circumstances are now, so I don’t know why we would. You have to be the registered owner of the car.”
Lemon: “She’s 91, dude. There’s no way we can do that.”
Bloodworth: “OK. I sent whoever called earlier a notarized power of attorney that will allow them to have her sign and notarize it, and then a third party can pick up the car.”
At that point, there’s an eight-second pause, followed by…
Lemon: “So, didn’t we investigate you at property crimes a couple years ago for felonies for doing stuff like this?”
Bloodworth: “You mean I was exonerated because you guys have a rogue cop that likes to jack with people, and OCC..”
Lemon interrupts: “It’s game on.”
Bloodworth: “…OCC or whatever. What do you mean it’s game on?”
Lemon: “We’ll start the same routine with you then.”
Bloodworth: “What do you mean you’ll start the same routine with me?”
Lemon: “I guarantee I’m going to talk to (unintelligible), this is going to be the last you tow them.”
Bloodworth: “What’s your name, sir?”
Lemon: “Brad Lemon, I’m the president of the police union.”
**
There’s your police union president, Kansas City. One of two people who run a department that has more than 1,300 sworn officers.
What a disgrace to the badge.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
I’m not seeing the “protect and serve” attitude there.
Well sounds like the police union president does not understand how things work, his position has given him power and he is abusing it, and his fellow officers do nothing, they look the other way. What else has this thug demanded from citizens under his scrutiny. With attitudes like this KC’s police department is close to being like the swat mafia gang in LA.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-07-29/lapd-swat-unit-controlled-by-swat-mafia-that-encourages-deadly-shootings-sergeant-lawsuit-alleges
This is just the tip of the iceberg for this guy, Karl. The Star reported a couple of weeks ago that in one case Lemon investigated, he was approving his own reports and probably having an affair with the assistant prosecutor handling the case. The subject of the investigation said he pleaded guilty because the odds were stacked against him and he wanted to avoid a long prison sentence. After getting out of prison, the defendant complained to then-Chief Darryl Forte, and presented documentation of the questionable tactics. Forte began an investigation into Lemon, but it withered away after Forte resigned in 2017.
I get a bad link when I try to open that read about the tow truck company.
It was good yesterday but not today, so I pulled the link. Thanks. The link to the audio is good, though.
Looks to me like the Prosecutor’s Office website is second rate.
Reporting back to one of my loyal readers…Gayle, the Prosecutor’s Office p.r. guy, Mike Mansur, tells me the link expired. He’s putting it back up. He said his office has little control of the office’s website, that it’s part of the county’s overall site. Of course it’s the county!
Due to your keen powers of observation, Gayle, and my follow-up, the link has been restored. That part of the post is back to its original form.
The power of Jimmy and his minions have spoken!
Merry Christmas.