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Recession takes a bite of out KCPD expansion plans

January 3, 2005 | Comments Off

In 2002 Kansas City voters approved a sales tax increase to pay for new and remodeled police stations, including a new Shoal Creek precinct and station, and a new police academy. At that time the Mayor and City Council pledged to add 20 police officers a year. Unlike a similar program for the fire department, the police tax didn’t include the money to pay for the officers. Instead, the City Council opted to find that money elsewhere in the budget.

Almost three years later, only five new positions have been added. Huge city budget cuts have left the KCPD without money to pay for the new personal. The new Shoal Creek Patrol will likely open without enough officers to staff it.

The Star: Police, KC aim to solve staffing needs on limited budget

Six of 13 City Council members favored including money in a sales-tax package for hiring officers, but they were overruled. The council instead put only Police Department capital improvements on the April 2002 ballot and promised to hire 180 extra officers – 20 a year for nine years – if voters approved the package.

Then-Councilwoman Teresa Loar called the decision “a big mistake” and predicted it would be “next to impossible” to fund the officers without a tax increase.

Loar recently said she was not surprised by the lack of hiring.

“That was my argument at the time, that we’d never see the increase in manpower if we don’t give them the money in the tax increase,” she said. “Why they chose not to fund the additional officers (in the tax package) was beyond me.”

Categories: Crime, Politics


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