KCPD Board to Vote for Relaxation of Residence Rules

[ad_1]

NS Kansas City Police Commission On Tuesday, police are ready to approve a resolution permitting them to live outside the city.

This includes Wyandotte and Johnson counties in Kansas. On these counties and the Missouri side, officers are allowed to live within 30 miles of the Kansas City border.

The move will take place after the Missouri State Parliament earlier this year. Passed a bill to lift long-standing police residence requirements.. The local police committee maintains the authority to extend the boundaries of where police, non-police personnel, and reserve police can live.

NS Police station policy It will be on the agenda of the Board of Directors during the monthly meeting on Tuesday. Measures on the consent agenda were usually passed without discussion.

Residence rules

Mayor Quinton Lucas has long opposed the change, calling the abolition of residence rules “unfortunate” and saying that the change has nothing to do with making Kansas City or Missouri safer.

Supporters of measures including Fraternal Order of Police 99 The police union said relaxing residence requirements would help recruit and maintain.

Prior to the new state law, Kansas City swearers had to live in the city for a year before starting employment, and private workers had to move into the city for nine months. They also had to live in the city limits as long as they worked at the police station.

At last year’s police committee Police union President Brad Lemon recognized as a member Some police officers have rented trailers to maintain two homes to circumvent the rules that require them to live in the city limits.

Missouri Parliament

State legislators approved action last year This will allow St. Louis police officers to live outside the city limits. The law was upheld by the saints of the time. Mayor of Louis Lyda Krewson.

Democrats in Kansas City opposed efforts to lift the rules of residence this year and secured the wording of the bill to allow police officers to restrict their residence in Missouri.

Senator Barbara Washington When Greg Razor We negotiated with Senator Tony Luetkemeyer of the Parkville Republican Party and agreed on the language that was finally passed. KCPD’s residence rules are “no more restrictive than requiring such personnel to reside within and within 30 miles of the nearest city boundary. In Missouri.”

“If police officers in Kansas City, Missouri patrol the city of Kansas City, I’m going to say they don’t have to be Kansas City. At least we can tell them to move three blocks. I’m not going to start paying Kansas taxes, “Razor said in March.

Luetkmeyer said Monday that the law does not prohibit officers from living in Kansas at all, and sets out the strictest residence requirements that the Board can adopt 30 miles from the city limits in Missouri. ..

“It forbids them to be more restrictive,” he said. “It does not prohibit police committees from relaxing those requirements beyond that.”

However, Washington said the proposal was “absolutely contrary” to her intentions in the compromise of “make sure you live within 30 miles of the Missouri side.”

“We definitely fought them in Kansas,” she said. “Allowing our officers to come from another state also reduces the economic development of our own community. They don’t shop at our grocery store … their Property taxes don’t go to our school. “

She says few police officers already live in her district on the East Side, experiencing higher crimes, and allowing police officers to patrol across state boundaries increases the use of power. I suggested that it would be.

“No one in Olathe knew how to work with someone on the 23rd and Van Brandt,” she said.

Razer also said the “contract” was to ban officers from living outside Missouri.

“I would be very disappointed if they found a technique to circumvent the legislature’s intentions,” he said.

Person signing the bill

Governor Mike Parson will ceremonially sign the new state law at the FOP office in Kansas City on Friday.

Daron EdwardsThe senior pastor of the United Believers Community Church said the policy change speaks to a collapsing relationship between police and the communities in which they serve.

“It demonstrates Rick Smith’s dishonest leadership in listening to and considering requests and warnings from local leaders,” Edwards told Star. “It’s as if the Pharaohs wouldn’t listen to Moses in this city. Therefore, we need other means and mechanisms to eliminate the Pharaohs from the city.”

“This is another sign that the Kansas City police station is trying to do whatever it wants, without considering the community or the ideas of the community.”

Bill Lukitsch contributed to this report.

[ad_2]