With the events of the last week, we are moving closer to seeing a change in administration at the Kansas City Police Department.
I believe Rick Smith will be out as police chief, probably through resignation, by the end of the year.
The main reason is that continuous and relentless pressure from civil rights organizations has had a twofold effect: First, it has helped move Mayor Quinton Lucas from a teeth-grinding police critic to an unequivocal and outspoken adversary.
Second — and this is not as obvious but I sense it is happening — the pressure has taken a toll on one or more of the four Republican-appointed members of the Board of Police Commissioners.
I have seen two possible indications that the police board’s impenetrable wall of opposition to public opinion is starting to crack. Sometime in recent months, the board chose Bishop Mark Tolbert, a Black minister, as board president, succeeding Don Wagner, a blue blood who is more Mission Hills than Kansas City oriented.
(In 2019, Wagner was one of a dozen people who ponied up $100,000 each to play a round of golf with Tom Watson, who was hosting a fundraiser for the First Tee organization at the Kansas City Country Club.)
Then, on Monday, at a secret and illegal meeting, Tolbert was not around when three board members — Wagner, Cathy Dean and Nathan Garrett — voted to explore the possibility of a lawsuit in the wake of the City Council’s decision last week to reallocate 18 percent of the police department’s budget to a newly established “community services and prevention fund.”
Lucas, the only board member not appointed by the governor, voted “no,” but interestingly Tolbert did not attend the meeting.
Now, maybe he was out of town or otherwise committed, but this was an awfully important meeting, and he wasn’t there.
My speculation is that the ongoing pressure from the civil rights organizations, led primarily by the Urban League of Kansas City and the SCLC of Greater Kansas City, has put a hitch in his step.
He might be a Republican — he was appointed by then-Gov. Eric Greitens — but he’s also a Black minister. And he’s probably the only Black minister in Kansas City right now who is on record as backing Rick Smith.
It’s got to be a lonely position for him.
Civil rights leaders like Gwen Grant of the Urban League and Rev. Vernon Percy Howard of the SCLC, both very eloquent and powerful speakers, keep bringing heat, and they’re not going to let up until there is a significant change.
Their ultimate goal, like mine, is local control of KCPD, but short of that they want Rick Smith’s crew-cut scalp. If Tolbert’s knees are getting wobbly, it’s going to be difficult for Wagner, Dean and Garrett to hold the line.
I would look for Dean, a retired lawyer with the Polsinelli firm, to be next in line to yield to pressure from the civil rights groups. (She is the only board member appointed by Gov. Mike Parson.)
Wagner, who made a fortune in the steel tank business, and Garrett, a lawyer who formerly was a member of the Missouri Highway Patrol, will never cave. Like Tolbert, Wagner and Garrett are Greitens appointees.
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We should all be very proud of Lucas for finding his spine and leading the drive to round up the nine votes needed last week to pass the ordinances giving the city more power over the Police Department’s budget.
I have watched with interest as the bond between Lucas on one hand and the Black ministers and other civil rights leaders on the other has tightened. It evidenced itself most clearly at the April 13 Park Board meeting, when civil rights leaders fist bumped and elbow bumped Lucas and then practically fell over each other in praising the mayor for helping build a consensus that brought about a resolution of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. street-naming quagmire.
The civil rights leaders had little use for the previous mayor, Sly James, who fumbled the MLK issue for at least two years.
At a news conference immediately after that April 13 meeting, one civil rights leader (I can’t remember which) said, referring to the turnabout on the MLK issue, “What changed? The mayor changed.” The others on hand nodded and raised their voices in agreement.
…It’s been gratifying to see the worm start to turn here. Whatever happens at the state level — no matter how much shit the General Assembly dumps on the city in retaliation for the council’s perceived impertinence — Lucas has the broadsword out and is swinging away at a longstanding miscarriage of governmental power.
Somehow, the state’s head must be cut off. State control of KCPD has got to end. Ultimately, it will take an initiative petition and a statewide vote. It’s an urgent matter. At the last session, the General Assembly considered but did not pass a bill that would make the initiative petition process significantly more difficult.
Next year, it could well happen. It’s essential to launch the petition drive and get it submitted before the General Assembly and Mike Parson take even more power out of the hands of Missourians.
In the near term, however, as the pressure keeps building on the police board, the chances of a board majority continuing to back Rick Smith are lessening. Lucas’ sword just might catch that scalp.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
At this point, it looks like matters are heading to court rather than a statewide vote. And it will be interesting to see how the council members work together after last Thursday’s donnybrook.
Regarding the relationship between Lucas and other Black leaders, that dynamic is fluid. For one, I’m not sure Gwen Grant will ever fully trust Lucas. I remember her amazingly candid quote from a Melinda Henneberger column: “In trying to have it both ways on Kansas City’s police chief, Urban League CEO Gwen Grant sees him as ‘doing the Quinton Shuffle. You never know where he really stands.’” Time will tell how well the relationship holds up.
https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/melinda-henneberger/article244597562.html
Like Gwen, I was worried that Lucas would continue to try to walk the tightrope, but I’ve come around. I haven’t talked to Gwen lately, but I would bet she feels the same way…He’s not doing much shuffling these days; instead he seems to be digging in his heels.
I agree Mark.
I am slowly becoming a fan of Mayor Q. Who knew? But on another note:
When are we going to hear more from the eloquent and powerful civil rights leaders like Gwen Grant and the Rev. Vernon Percy Howard about programs and progress they are making with their colleagues and black ministers, businesses and educators across the city and throughout their communities that directly address the root causes of black-on-black crime, gun violence, and the cycle of chronic victimhood?
Their protestations and activism are necessary elements of driving change, but where is their leadership and the path(s) to sustainable action plans and programs that complement and augment city, county, state, and federally funded programs? We know empirically “the state” can only get it “nearly right”. Private citizens, private programs, and private passions need to be engaged as multipliers and catalysts to positively impact tax-aided social programs.
There’s obviously been a carefully orchestrated public relations campaign to oust Chief Smith – and maybe he should go – but where is the energy, leadership and planning to communicate and implement real activities designed to lift people up and channel their pursuits in positive and productive ways?
Instead of saying, “this is wrong, fix it,” the better approach is, “this is wrong, we need to fix it; here’s how we intend to help you do that.” That’s powerful.
All well and good, Richard, except the civil rights groups, like all other non-elected activists, do not have the power to establish policy. They are doing all they can to get the elected officials and others with executive authority, like the police board, to change policies for the better. They are telling them what they want — a new chief, local control and greater emphasis on crime prevention and social services.
Yeah, got that. The power they do have is to motivate and help people change their personal policies to be more productive and self-reliant through mentoring and programmatic opportunities they can create and control. Crime prevention and social services thrive in an environment that citizen leaders foster and establish the standards and behavioral norms to model.
The civil rights groups have more than one audience (and responsibility). Yes, they’re focused on making changes to policies that need change by elected officials and others in authority. But an equally important audience (constituents and parishioners) need guidance, consistent support and tools to learn and function more productively within societal norms.
So much of what passes for liberal policy with regard to policing and crime seems counter productive to me and can only perpetuate the problem.
For instance, holding up drug besotted criminals who resist arrest as heroes and role models is only going to generate more young black men getting injured at the hands of police. Engaging in combat with people who rightly operate on the principle of overwhelming force can lead to no other outcome.
Or, take for example The Star’s project now of examining gun violence. I wonder if they’ve studied Mark Dupree’s habit of pleading down armed robbery and felon with a gun charges to level 9 felonies and sentences of probation. I’m betting not since that doesn’t fit the narrative and yet what other outcome could come of putting violent offenders back on the streets again?
It appears Tolbert and Dean aren’t breaking ranks.
https://www.kcpd.org/about/board-of-police-commissioners/minutes-and-votes/may-28-2021-closed-session-votes/
Let’s give it some time. The Republican Bishop might see the light at some point. I f you get to 3-2, it’s a new game.