Dave Helling and Lynn Horsley have a big story about the recent squabbling between KCPD and City Hall over ... well, there's actually a laundry list of things. A lot of it comes down to money and who controls it. The city funds the police department, but like St. Louis, KCPD is overseen by a board appointed by the Missouri governor.
At the fringes of these recent dustups, there's a little talk about returning local control of the police. St. Louis has been talking about this a lot more than Kansas City, though. (Last year, there was a failed attempt in the state legislature to revert the police back to local control, and it was St. Louis legislators leading the charge.) It looks doubtful that most Kansas Citians would jump on this particular bandwagon. KCPD gets good reviews from most residents.
I don't really see a problem here.
The more time City Hall and the PD spend fighting each other, the less time they have to come up with new methods of fleecing the public. Sounds like a win-win to me.
Posted by: Realist | Sunday, July 12, 2009 at 07:41 AM