EDITOR:
No on Amendment 4.
This only applies to the Kansas City Police Department (KCPD). However, Constitutional Amendment 4 is on every ballot in the state of Missouri because the KCPD budget is controlled by the state of Missouri. Not funded by, just controlled by the state of Missouri. There is a long history of state control clear back to 1874.
The KCPD operates under state control by a five-member board of police commissioners, four of whom are appointed by Missouri’s governor. The fifth member is the Kansas City mayor, currently Quinton Lucas.
In 1932, political boss Tom Pendergast gained local control of the KCPD. Corruption and bribes became as normal in KC as it is in Chicago. Gambling, moonshine and prostitution just required paying the Pendergast machine for police and prosecutors to look the other way. Pendergast failed to pay income tax on one of his deals and the IRS caught up with him. He went to prison in Leavenworth in 1939 and then the Missouri legislature intervened and took control of KCPD back to the state board.
“Tom Pendergast died in 1945. Mob rule of elections in Kansas City has not been a threat for 80 years, but the state perpetuates a system with no relationship to legitimate state interests, as evidenced by the fact no other community in Missouri maintains the [KCPD] model.” – Gwen Grant, president of Urban League of KC (source; Kansas City Star)
This ballot measure would increase funding to the Kansas City Police Department by about $40 million. Specifically it mandates that Kansas City increase the percent of its budget spent on the police from 20% to 25% of KC revenue. Interestingly, the KCPD has not spent all of its annual budget in each of the past three years.
It is not appropriate for folks in your hometown or mine to be voting on how Kansas City spends its money.
The legislature should have put on the ballot a bill to remove state control of KCPD and remove the “board of police commissioners.” That I would support.
Local control allows for local responsibility.
On Nov. 8, I will vote no on Amendment 4.
--Paul Hamby
Maysville