​On Sept. 19, the Kansas City Police Department became the subject of a federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. The investigation is the result of the alleged long-term mistreatment of women and minorities by the KCPD, specifically in regard to its hiring practices.

​The inquiry came about after the Kansas City Star published several articles describing widespread police harassment against Black citizens and even amongst their fellow officers, causing many Black cops to resign. According to the Star’s reporting, 18 Black officers resigned over a 15-year period, and despite making up 27% of Kansas City’s population, Black individuals currently only make up 12% of the police force.

While ​public trust in the police from white citizens has remained steady, confidence from Black citizens has fluctuated over the past few years, a 2021 Gallup poll reported. They remarked that Black citizen’s confidence in police reached an all-time low in 2020 following nation-wide protests to police violence, and remains slow to recover. 

In a nationwide evaluation of policing practices, KCPD ranked among the lowest of Missouri’s 526 departments. The evaluation, compiled by the nonprofit organization Police Scorecard, reported that KCPD obtained more funding per capita, but consistently used more non-lethal and lethal force per arrest and spent more funds on misconduct settlements than 77%, 73%, 96% and 67% of other Missouri police departments respectively. The evaluation also reported that there was a greater racial disparity in use of deadly force than 62% of other departments.

On Oct. 14, a second bombshell report emerged, published by the Kansas City Defender and accusing the KCPD of failing to take concerns seriously as Kansas City community leaders reported that Black women were being targeted and kidnapped on Prospect Avenue. Just a week prior to the report on Oct. 7, a Black woman escaped captivity in Excelsior Springs, claiming that the suspect who held her in his basement kidnapped her from Prospect Avenue and also murdered several other women. Attempts to bring attention to the alleged kidnappings began in September, but according to the Defender, the KCPD addressed the disappearances as “completely unfounded” with no need for an investigation.

According to the DOJ, their investigation will specifically determine if KCPD promoted employment or hiring “pattern or practice of discrimination based on race” in violation of  the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Civil rights leaders, including  Gwen Grant who is president and CEO of Urban League of Kansas City, remain hopeful that the investigation is “just the beginning of a deeper dive that will also expand this investigation into patterns and practices of excessive and deadly force.”

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas spoke positively of the DOJ’s investigation at a news conference about the issue: “Most of our conversations, not just in Kansas City, but in the state of Missouri, have not looked at how we can make sure that our officers — particularly officers of color and women — can be taken care of, [and] have not looked at how we can become a more diverse department reflective of our city. I think no matter what becomes of this investigation, it’s important for us to take steps and make sure we’re doing right by our officers.”

​The interim Police Chief Joseph Mabin said the department plans to fully cooperate with the investigation.

The United Kingdom’s Parliament introduced a bill that would grant police officers fewer restrictions in their ability to control protests. The bill was brought forward after the death of Sarah Everard invoked a wave of protests and vigils across the U.K.

Sarah Everard left a friend’s house March 3 to go back to her own apartment but never arrived. On March 12, Wayne Couzens, a serving police officer, was charged with Everard’s abduction and murder.

Women across the U.K. have expressed their immense outrage at Everard’s murder, sharing their own experiences of walking alone and circulating safety tips as well as recommendations for what men can do to keep women safe. 

A vigil held March 13, the day after Everard’s remains were found, was broken up by police. Footage taken at the protest shows officers sparked more protests due to the methods the police used to detain the female protesters. 

Despite the criticism, the Parliament is pushing ahead with the “Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.” Currently, in order to get the police involved in a protest, they must show that the protest presents a risk of “serious public disorder, serious damage to property or serious disruption to the life of the community.”

If passed, the bill would impose more restrictions on protests, giving police the right to impose start and finish times and set noise limits on the protests. 

The bill is ultimately designed to “stop people occupying public spaces, hanging off bridges, gluing themselves to windows, or employing other protest tactics to make themselves both seen and heard.” 

Many critics of the bill are speaking out against it, calling into question whether or not the bill should be passed based on the ideals of free speech and assembly. While some in the U.K. government see the bill as being rushed through, others claim that aspects of the bill will toughen sentences for violent and sexual offenses. 

With Couzens’ trial set to begin in October, and the bill still neither accepted nor denied in the Parliament, the U.K. is likely to continue to see protests against the bill and calls for justice for Everard.

Protests calling for police reform have swept the country for the past year, sparked by former police officer Derek Chauvin’s killing of George Floyd in May 2020. With Chauvin currently facing trial, and continued instances of police brutality against African Americans, the issue of police brutality has not gone away and reform is beginning to make strides in legislation.

Lobbying for police reform has been prevalent in Missouri since the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson. A bill concerning police reform and accountability passed the Missouri Senate and is now making its way to the Missouri House of Representatives.

Senate Bill 60 establishes a ban on police chokeholds, increases the penalty for officers engaging in sexual conduct with detainees to a class E felony, prevents discharged officers from moving to another department to escape accountability for wrongdoings and establishes a program to provide help to officers coping with stress and psychological trauma.

This bill was sponsored by state senator Brian Williams, who in 2018 was the first Black male to be elected to the Missouri Senate in 20 years. Williams hopes that this bill will save Black lives as well as support the police while getting rid of the officers that harm their profession.

SB 60 has now been combined with another police reform bill, Senate Bill 53, that would remove the residency requirement of police officers in Kansas City. Proposed by state senator Tony Luetkemeyer, SB 53 gives police officers the option to live within a 30 mile radius of Kansas City, and requires the officers to be Missouri residents.

Quinton Lucas, mayor of Kansas City expressed his opposition to SB 53, tweeting, “Such a bill is a step back for community-police relations at a time our city cannot afford it. Outside occupying forces lead to more problems, not fewer.” 

Lucas further explained, “There are many things we need to do to stem the rising violent crime in our city – de-escalation, better health services, community investment, youth empowerment. Bills like this fostering greater division between the community and its police ain’t it.”
Despite the opposing argument of Mayor Lucas and Kansas City Police Department’s Chief Rick Smith, the bill passed the Senate with bipartisan support. Senator Luetkemeyer defended the bill, arguing most police already live outside of high-crime areas and responded to the opposition by saying, “The bottom line for me is an officer’s address does not dictate how they perform on the job.”

A six-month long trial period for a new initiative implemented in Denver, Colorado, called Strategic Team Assisted Response (STAR) just released its first evaluation, revealing the promising and positive effects that this program has already had on the community.

The STAR program replaces police officers with a mobile team of healthcare workers that respond to nonviolent calls related to mental health, depression, poverty, homelessness or substance abuse. In these first six months, the team responded to 748 calls, and none required police assistance or resulted in arrests.

When responding to these incidents, the workers are equipped with food, water, hygiene products and knowledge of how to appropriately deal with mental health-related issues without using force. This more empathetic approach to policing connects people to services like shelter, food aid, counseling and medication rather than putting them into the prison system or costly unnecessary hospital visits.

The team was only active in a small area of Denver from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday through Friday during their trial period. After seeing the success of the program, the City and County of Denver allocated $1.4 million to support the STAR program in 2021. An additional $1.4 million may also be provided to the program from the Caring for Denver foundation.

This budget will allow the program to expand by purchasing four vans, hiring six two-person teams of healthcare workers and purchasing the necessary supplies to stock these units. The expansion of the program will allow them to serve a larger area for seven days a week, creating the ability to help a larger portion of the city’s population.

The success of the STAR program and other similar initiatives like the Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets (CAHOOTS) program in Eugene, Oregon, are gaining national attention and have the potential to jump-start the possibility of a national rollout of a similar program.

Our nation’s criminal justice methods have been criticized recently due to the exposure of police brutality, especially towards people of color, which are sparking a widespread call for reformation of the criminal justice system. Programs like STAR are part of these reformations that have the potential to prevent police brutality which often occurs because the police do not know how to properly handle situations with those afflicted with mental illnesses. 

According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, people with untreated mental illnesses are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter. It was also discovered that individuals with untreated severe mental illness are involved in at least one in four and as many as half of all fatal police shootings. From these findings, they concluded that reducing encounters between law enforcement and individuals with untreated severe mental illness could be one of the most immediate and practical strategies to reduce fatal police shootings in the United States.

Due to these prevalent issues, programs like STAR are gaining national traction. President Biden has said that his administration would fund such initiatives that pair police departments with mental health professionals, social workers, substance use disorder experts and disability advocates.