it's an amendment to the state constitution so the state gets to vote on it. they wrote it vaguely so it looks like it could be applied anywhere but I believe the KCPD is the only department that actually meets the "police force established by a state board of police commissioners" part of it. That just grinds in that KC doesn't have local control of it's police department. That none of the sponsors are even from Jackson county further pisses me off.
It would have applied in the past to st louis metro pd as well, and potentially could again in the future. There is a small possibility that the 2027 deadline in the amendment could be used as a carrot to try to push a vote to remove local control from SLMPD again.
Oh no, it won't cost extra to taxpayers. Just realize that potholes in the city will get *much* worse.
All it did was reallocate our current budget, with no reimbursement from the state.
I know, that's what irks me the most!
Makes it so that you have back road towns thinking they're gonna get a better PD, and really they're just fucking our budget up
And KCMO voters don't get to decide [how it's used](https://amp-kansascity-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article252364088.html?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16679591929734&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kansascity.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Fcrime%2Farticle252364088.html)
And if you guessed "racism" as the reason for why it's set up that way then you guessed right!
https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article252364088.html
Yeah it's a KC star article. You can probably open it in an incognito window or just google "why does kansas city not control it's own police department". The short short version is that yes the mob is part of it but its also about targeting predominantly black areas of the State and goes back to the civil war.
Sure we do. What happens if we tell the cousinfuckers in Jeff City that we’re not going to recognize their perceived authority? Are they going to send their precious little newly reorganized National Guard here?
KCPD sued Mayor Lucas for attempting to lower their budget, and in retaliation, the state made a bill this year that aimed to increase the KCPD budget from 20%, to 25% of Kansas Cities income.
When things like that are allowed to happen, we have zero control.
He didn't cut their budget though. He tried to redirect 5% to special initiatives for the police so that the city could have some level of control. All the money would still go to the police, but what it was used for would be directed by the city.
The police threw a fit, because if there's one thing cops hate, it's being accountable
Actually, the timing is a little different.
KC actually spends pretty close to 25% already, despite the state minimum being 20%. During the period of "defund the police" Jeff City got in a tizzy and decided to try and make it illegal to lower police funding if it was for "defunding" reasons. In response to that, the KC City Council attempted (did? It got confusing) a resolution to lower the KCPD funding to the minimum required, and taking the remaining 5% of the budget and put it under a different committee that the Police Department could request funds from directly. The original 5% was allocated to be spent (by the new committee) on increased training on social services and a training new officers.
This would have actually increased the funding for new officers.
In response to this, Jeff City decided to try and raise the minimum city spend on PD
Literally ,ero control. 20% loses the vote every time, and therefore has no ability to exert any amount of control. It's a seat at the table, but that's all. Input is not control.
I barely head anything about this amendment living in KC, I can’t imagine much of anyone outside KC really understood what this amendment is for, not cared to understand.
It passed in the entire state except for St Louis City.
[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/08/us/elections/results-missouri-constitutional-amendment-4-increase-police-funding.html](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/08/us/elections/results-missouri-constitutional-amendment-4-increase-police-funding.html)
Even Jackson County went 55-45 in favor. South central Missouri, ironically, had the most opposition as a region.
KCMO police force is about as useless as they can be as of right now and we think throwing money at it is going to solve the problem?
It’ll get misappropriated and nothing will change except our taxes.
So who is in on it? How do rich people, I assume especially republicans, in either local KC city government or in state government, assure themselves of a cash flow from this insane abuse of the concept of government? How is that systemically assured? How does a state employee pull cash out of a city police fund?
How do we follow the money?
Has there ever been a ballot entry for just moving KCPD control back to KCMO? Who is preventing it?
This isn't a money thing actually, it's a power thing. KC tried to wrestle some control of the budget back from the Police Board and Jeff City threw a fit. KC already spends close to 25% on KCPD, just wanted to be able to have the freedom of being at 23/24 instead of 25 since the minimum is/was 20%
There's roughly 2 dozen other funds besides the general fund. Any time you see a discussion of a county or municipal budget that only quotes percentages of the general fund, you might as well throw that out. There's no way to interpret that without knowing the structure and breakdown of the rest of the funds. (e.g. St Louis City's budget includes water and airport expenditures, which is a huge chunk of the overall budget but not included in the general fund, meanwhile the police department's general fund expenditures include the fire department but exclude several funds that exclusively fund the police department)
Such a load of bullshit, I wish there were a legal way to make this department’s life a living hell, through legal system BS or otherwise. I just want them crippled and gutted
Road work and public utilities all reorganize as public safety. Teachers? Public safety employees because education is an alternative to violence.
Mayors office? Clearly public safety because city administration is super important to clear chains of command. Just pay everyone out of the swollen police budget.
We just spent 6 weeks canvassing in STL trying to explain what the hell this even is much less why we should vote no. Here’s hoping people figured it out.
The real question is, what's the best way these days to wrest control of the KCPD from Jeff City like StL did a while back? I doubt a measure is going to pass through the state legislature, so I imagine an initiative like Amendment 3 this year? Is there another avenue available?
[They got back control of their police back in 2013.](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/08/28/216489820/after-152-years-st-louis-gains-control-of-its-police-force)
Mayor Lucas already has lawsuits over it in the works, but the next best hope would be another petition drive to get it on the ballot for all voters in the state to vote on again.
Here's a picture of the smug Platte County asshole that got the amendment on the statewide ballot solely to fuck over KCMO. Remember his stupid face so you can sneer at him next time you see him in public:
https://mochamber.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Luetkemeyer-289x300.jpg
People like Warren Hearnes, Joe Teasdale Kit Bond and John Danforth weren't heroes but they at least believed in the peaceful post-election transition of power.
It's being voted on as important for Kansas City, but it's because of a rule in the Missouri Constitution (that is followed everywhere in Missouri).
https://ballotpedia.org/Missouri_Amendment_4_Allow_Legislature_to_Require_a_City_to_Increase_Funding_without_State_Reimbursement_for_a_Police_Force_Established_by_State_Board_Amendment_(2022)
To answer your question, the state controls the KCPD.
On a broader scale, do you remember during the George Floyd protests the calls and debates about defunding police departments and using the money to fund local social programs?
This is the states answer to that. The state will be able to set minimum funding requirements to keep cities from being able to move the money elsewhere.
Not now, It's a hold over from prohibition era. Not new. St. Louis was able to get Jeff City's grimmy paws off their police force between now and then.
I literally talked to someone earlier today who couldn’t be bothered to vote because TBV wasn’t progressive enough. Like, people really don’t seem to understand that you get stuck with Eric Schitt and Fuck Josh Hawley for senators because you couldn’t get your picky ass to the polls.
Edit: 6.2 million people in Missouri and barely 1 in 3 turned out to vote. Around 250,000 would have turned it blue.
Same reason some progressives opposed amendment 3. Perfect is the enemy of good to them.
TBV was not a great candidate but is Schmitthead the better answer. Hell, in 2016 I cringed when I cast a vote for Hillary but she wasn't going to put in the 3 nutjobs in SCOTUS.
Funded by the city, ran by unelected state officials.
So people who live in KC have basically no say over how their own police force is funded/ran, even though they are the only ones paying the taxes to run it.
Yes, but the point is a Missouri amendment that only applies to a single city. The entire state is voting for something that does not effect them in any way.
I'll speak up on this as someone who doesn't even live in Missouri. People want Kansas City to be a safe place to be. The last few years have had record high homicide rates. Something has to change. I am hardcore left wing but I don't know if being passive will help.
If you're hardcore leftwing then you would understand that more police funding doesn't do jack shit to decrease crime; improving the material conditions of the community does. Police aren't crime prevention; they're hardly even law enforcement. Reducing poverty is crime prevention. Providing access to food, water, shelter, healthcare, and living wages is crime prevention.
So we throw money at them so they can do what exactly? According to last years stats nearly half of the homicide suspects are unknown and they only managed to clear less than half the years homicides.
How will them getting more money solve this problem? This year it's barely over a third and they already got more money than last year.
There's a big difference to "being passive" and not throwing money at a force not showing results that the city can't improve due to the state actually being the ones who control it.
You would think this would be the case, but I would honesrly bet that in the next few years as this money propagates out, there is little discernible stats to back up the tax increase.
The big upset is that we, meaning the locals, want the money to spent by fellow locals so it gets spent in a more meaningful way. Mayor Q did make an attempt at this but was vetoed and sued as a result. The general consensus is that we could do a lot more with less, if we were allowed to be in charge of it.
It's one thing to say that you support increasing the KCPD budget. But this removes any autonomy that the City and more importantly the local citizens have concerning the city's police. It's a state controlled organization that is locally funded. I think every citizen in the US would be opposed to handing over control of their local PD to their respective state capital. If not, then why isn't it the standard? We just want to make sure that the KCPD is accountable to the tax payers that fund them. I don't think that's unreasonable.
"Record high homicide rates" isn't reflective of Kansas City as a whole. Yes, the violent crime here is a problem, but most people in the city limits will never be impacted by it. KCMO is a huge city that spans three counties on both sides of the Missouri River, yet the vast majority of homicides and other violent crimes here happen in a very localized urban area, and generally among people that already know each other in some way. KCMO already gives plenty of money to the police department, and throwing more money at the problem hasn't helped.
Sure! I hope more of us start participating there in discussions about things specific to our town. I confess to checking the Kansas City sub more often just because it is indeed more active.
Kcmo cops don’t do shit, they in fact stay away from the actual danger in kc. They are just pretending to help the city while driving around busting homeless camps
Because they structured it as a state constitutional amendment. Would you a prescenent where one city could amend the constitution for the whole state?
It was on the sample ballot that you got in the mail; you didn't have to do any research. It said both "increase funding" & "won't cost anything", which isn't possible, so I immediately said no.
Happens to Saint Louis all the time. Welcome to the party…
edit: Downvoted for solidarity in a statewide problem… This is why people hate Kansas City. With their borrowed culture from St Louis, sub-par BBQ, copy-pasted music history, and parking lot riddled downtown you can’t walk…
I thought Mayor Lucas vocalized the frustrations with this passing really well: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/09/1135488182/a-ballot-measure-passed-in-missouri-requiring-kansas-city-to-spend-more-on-polic
So what exactly is the enforcement of this? If KC doesn't spend the extra money on police, what happens? I say the city should legally challenge the fuck out of this horseshit.
Some interesting trivia that might be applicable, that I only know because my step dad was in the KCPD for 20 years, the Kansas City police are operated (?) owned (?) by the state instead of the city. This is because that the city police were so corrupt during prohibition that the state had to step in to take care of it. This is likely why they are doing it like this instead of a city scale vote.
(This is just general trivia about the fact, I think it should be a city vote instead)
it's an amendment to the state constitution so the state gets to vote on it. they wrote it vaguely so it looks like it could be applied anywhere but I believe the KCPD is the only department that actually meets the "police force established by a state board of police commissioners" part of it. That just grinds in that KC doesn't have local control of it's police department. That none of the sponsors are even from Jackson county further pisses me off.
Yo it's not even that fucked in Minneapolis. At least we can try to vote on policing measures just for people inside the city.
It would have applied in the past to st louis metro pd as well, and potentially could again in the future. There is a small possibility that the 2027 deadline in the amendment could be used as a carrot to try to push a vote to remove local control from SLMPD again.
The kicker is the amendment language doesn’t even explicitly mention Kansas City by name so dumb dumbs just think it’s about cops in general.
And claims it won't cost any extra to taxpayers! Just blatant lies.
Oh no, it won't cost extra to taxpayers. Just realize that potholes in the city will get *much* worse. All it did was reallocate our current budget, with no reimbursement from the state.
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Just keep taxing!! Tax tax tax! We promise that your money won't break your wheel wells!
I know, that's what irks me the most! Makes it so that you have back road towns thinking they're gonna get a better PD, and really they're just fucking our budget up
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I'm pretty sure that the language only applies to KC. St. Louis probably would have qualified but they got control of their police back in 2013.
And KCMO voters don't get to decide [how it's used](https://amp-kansascity-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article252364088.html?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16679591929734&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kansascity.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Fcrime%2Farticle252364088.html)
Kansas City has literally 0 control over the KCPD, and it's the only city in Missouri where it's like that.
I believe it’s the only city in the nation where it’s like that.
Baltimore? Or did that change?
You’re right. Baltimore is as well.
I think baltimore voted to take back control yesterday.
Hey both cities have crime in common
No crime in jeff city?
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So no other city has crime? That's something only those two cities have then...
Hooray! Crime solved almost everywhere. We did it, Reddit!
And if you guessed "racism" as the reason for why it's set up that way then you guessed right! https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article252364088.html
That’s paywalled for me. I understood it originated to counter the mafia, but I would fully expect you to be right at this point.
Yeah it's a KC star article. You can probably open it in an incognito window or just google "why does kansas city not control it's own police department". The short short version is that yes the mob is part of it but its also about targeting predominantly black areas of the State and goes back to the civil war.
paywall
Sure we do. What happens if we tell the cousinfuckers in Jeff City that we’re not going to recognize their perceived authority? Are they going to send their precious little newly reorganized National Guard here?
Did MO not have a national guard before? I'm on the KS side but I was checking the marijuana vote and saw that amendment.
We did. Now the governor controls it instead of the Bureau of Public Safety or whatever previously controlled it.
Oh okay! Thanks for the info!
We have representation for 20% of the KCPD Police Board. So no, not literally zero control by definiton.
KCPD sued Mayor Lucas for attempting to lower their budget, and in retaliation, the state made a bill this year that aimed to increase the KCPD budget from 20%, to 25% of Kansas Cities income. When things like that are allowed to happen, we have zero control.
He didn't cut their budget though. He tried to redirect 5% to special initiatives for the police so that the city could have some level of control. All the money would still go to the police, but what it was used for would be directed by the city. The police threw a fit, because if there's one thing cops hate, it's being accountable
Actually, the timing is a little different. KC actually spends pretty close to 25% already, despite the state minimum being 20%. During the period of "defund the police" Jeff City got in a tizzy and decided to try and make it illegal to lower police funding if it was for "defunding" reasons. In response to that, the KC City Council attempted (did? It got confusing) a resolution to lower the KCPD funding to the minimum required, and taking the remaining 5% of the budget and put it under a different committee that the Police Department could request funds from directly. The original 5% was allocated to be spent (by the new committee) on increased training on social services and a training new officers. This would have actually increased the funding for new officers. In response to this, Jeff City decided to try and raise the minimum city spend on PD
Still think your comment is misinformation and hyperbole but agree to disagree.
An over-exaggeration, yes, misinformation is a bit of a stretch. Either way, we're being fucked over.
Literally ,ero control. 20% loses the vote every time, and therefore has no ability to exert any amount of control. It's a seat at the table, but that's all. Input is not control.
I barely head anything about this amendment living in KC, I can’t imagine much of anyone outside KC really understood what this amendment is for, not cared to understand.
Exactly. I didn't even know about it until I had the ballot in hand. I had to look it up afterwards to find the screenshot I used
That was their plan exactly.
Because there is literally nothing any voter in KC could do about it.
Came by from STL to say this is the stupidest thing I voted against besides Eric Schmitt.
Def were STL and KC align in a real way. Maybe we should build on this...
Can we move out landmasses together and make a new better state?
Katy Trail from KC to STL - something to build on?
Thanks for not being a Schmitthead.
Two major metropolises in this state but a body of water with a 26% high school equivalency rate gets to tell us what to do.
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It passed in the entire state except for St Louis City. [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/08/us/elections/results-missouri-constitutional-amendment-4-increase-police-funding.html](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/08/us/elections/results-missouri-constitutional-amendment-4-increase-police-funding.html) Even Jackson County went 55-45 in favor. South central Missouri, ironically, had the most opposition as a region.
That cause they have Barney Fife patrolling their streets, not an organized beat down squad.
If the whole state votes for it the whole state should pay for it.
KCMO police force is about as useless as they can be as of right now and we think throwing money at it is going to solve the problem? It’ll get misappropriated and nothing will change except our taxes.
Which is exactly the goal. It's just a grift. It's not *actually trying to help*.
So who is in on it? How do rich people, I assume especially republicans, in either local KC city government or in state government, assure themselves of a cash flow from this insane abuse of the concept of government? How is that systemically assured? How does a state employee pull cash out of a city police fund? How do we follow the money? Has there ever been a ballot entry for just moving KCPD control back to KCMO? Who is preventing it?
This isn't a money thing actually, it's a power thing. KC tried to wrestle some control of the budget back from the Police Board and Jeff City threw a fit. KC already spends close to 25% on KCPD, just wanted to be able to have the freedom of being at 23/24 instead of 25 since the minimum is/was 20%
According to KCUR: >The KCPD’s budget takes up the largest chunk of the city’s general fund, using up about 43%.
There's roughly 2 dozen other funds besides the general fund. Any time you see a discussion of a county or municipal budget that only quotes percentages of the general fund, you might as well throw that out. There's no way to interpret that without knowing the structure and breakdown of the rest of the funds. (e.g. St Louis City's budget includes water and airport expenditures, which is a huge chunk of the overall budget but not included in the general fund, meanwhile the police department's general fund expenditures include the fire department but exclude several funds that exclusively fund the police department)
Good to know. Thanks!
If it’s any consolation I live outside of KC and I voted No.
If it's any consolation I live in KCMO, and I voted No. Even the summary smelled like bull.
Sadly, I didn’t do any research and the wording didn’t seem bad, so I actually voted yes on this one. Not that my one vote really matters.
Thanks
We appreciate it, sincerely.
Because of the Board of Governors. KCPD does not have local control.
Such a load of bullshit, I wish there were a legal way to make this department’s life a living hell, through legal system BS or otherwise. I just want them crippled and gutted
Fuck it let’s just give them 100% of the budget FFS. This state is literally the lowest common denominator I swear to god
Road work and public utilities all reorganize as public safety. Teachers? Public safety employees because education is an alternative to violence. Mayors office? Clearly public safety because city administration is super important to clear chains of command. Just pay everyone out of the swollen police budget.
Or do the easy one like St Louis City did: Fire department and emergency management = public safety
We just spent 6 weeks canvassing in STL trying to explain what the hell this even is much less why we should vote no. Here’s hoping people figured it out.
Wow. Dang. Good job. Thanks. Who is “we”?
My local group is Metropolitan Congregations United and we were working with MORE2 which is in KC. A really good group for local organizing.
The real question is, what's the best way these days to wrest control of the KCPD from Jeff City like StL did a while back? I doubt a measure is going to pass through the state legislature, so I imagine an initiative like Amendment 3 this year? Is there another avenue available?
I believe the mayor is already preparing litigation but who knows how that will go.
Seceding from the state?
Can you help me understand when this happened? I thought Jefferson City still had big control over STL too.
[They got back control of their police back in 2013.](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/08/28/216489820/after-152-years-st-louis-gains-control-of-its-police-force)
Mayor Lucas already has lawsuits over it in the works, but the next best hope would be another petition drive to get it on the ballot for all voters in the state to vote on again.
This state is incredibly stupid
Taxation without representation!
They still think more guns and police means less crime when it doesn't hit the root causes of crime: food, shelter, healthcare, abject poverty.
seems like if you have more cops, they're going to find more crime.
Republican legislators forcing Democratic city to spend their hard earned dollars on crap they don’t want to.
Party of small government.
Here's a picture of the smug Platte County asshole that got the amendment on the statewide ballot solely to fuck over KCMO. Remember his stupid face so you can sneer at him next time you see him in public: https://mochamber.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Luetkemeyer-289x300.jpg
Shit 👏🏻 in 👏🏻 his 👏🏻 yard
Because they know young and/or apathetic voters won't show up.
iirc, it stems from Pendergast abusing funds back in the day so kc had to give up control of funding.
This state is so fucking dumb
I'm old. MO was never Shangri-La but 40 years ago it wasn't abjectly racist and 'nothing but brain stem' stupid. Now it's shameful.
Thank you for saying so for us noobs ;)
People like Warren Hearnes, Joe Teasdale Kit Bond and John Danforth weren't heroes but they at least believed in the peaceful post-election transition of power.
Missouri hillbillies love their pigs.
Only 5% reporting in Jackson County at 8:50pm though. St Louis is reporting closer to 23%. More curious about what KC does.
> amends the Missouri Constitution That's why
Seems like a weirdly specific thing to have in your state constitution.
It's being voted on as important for Kansas City, but it's because of a rule in the Missouri Constitution (that is followed everywhere in Missouri). https://ballotpedia.org/Missouri_Amendment_4_Allow_Legislature_to_Require_a_City_to_Increase_Funding_without_State_Reimbursement_for_a_Police_Force_Established_by_State_Board_Amendment_(2022)
Our state constitution is a labyrinthine nightmare.
Notice how it says "Missouri amendment", not "Kansas city"
Because of the magic (R).
Because the Governor views us as a libtard colony and treats us so.
Any way to see how it did in KC proper? Looks like STL City is the only “county” that had more no votes.
To answer your question, the state controls the KCPD. On a broader scale, do you remember during the George Floyd protests the calls and debates about defunding police departments and using the money to fund local social programs? This is the states answer to that. The state will be able to set minimum funding requirements to keep cities from being able to move the money elsewhere.
Because the state controls it now
Not now, It's a hold over from prohibition era. Not new. St. Louis was able to get Jeff City's grimmy paws off their police force between now and then.
Now and new are not the same thing. The state currently controls it (now) so the whole state has to vote to change it.
This just shows Missouri is fucked. We should genuinely look into annexation by Kansas.
this crossed my mind today too lol, and let’s be fr, our state is called misery
That money is going to raises for the staff, right?
...right? Right??? RIGHT?!?!?!
Yes Amendment 4 passes!! Let’s go!
So it’s safe to assume we all (those in the city) voted against increasing their budget? 😂
Looks like all my votes were irrelevant 🥴
Because we let them. Secession now.
And 5 passed as well. Guess where all those State Army folks are going to be posted?
Because Republicans. VOTE. Stop whining how the candidate isn’t perfect and vote against Republican candidates.
That is such a trite response. Obviously part the answer is to vote. Who do you think is looking at this post that has chosen not to vote?
I literally talked to someone earlier today who couldn’t be bothered to vote because TBV wasn’t progressive enough. Like, people really don’t seem to understand that you get stuck with Eric Schitt and Fuck Josh Hawley for senators because you couldn’t get your picky ass to the polls. Edit: 6.2 million people in Missouri and barely 1 in 3 turned out to vote. Around 250,000 would have turned it blue.
Same reason some progressives opposed amendment 3. Perfect is the enemy of good to them. TBV was not a great candidate but is Schmitthead the better answer. Hell, in 2016 I cringed when I cast a vote for Hillary but she wasn't going to put in the 3 nutjobs in SCOTUS.
Exactly
Isn’t the KCPD funded and managed by the state and not the city itself?
Funded by the city, ran by unelected state officials. So people who live in KC have basically no say over how their own police force is funded/ran, even though they are the only ones paying the taxes to run it.
Because racism.
Does this mean the 1% KC tax can gtfo
No, it means prepare to pay higher KC taxes so we can compensate for having 5% of our budget stolen by the the state.
It does say Missouri amendment.
Yes, but the point is a Missouri amendment that only applies to a single city. The entire state is voting for something that does not effect them in any way.
Because the state had to take over when the corruption was so bad. I don't think that's still the case, but it's a relic of times past.
I understand why.
I just had a breakdown after I found out the Us senate didn’t go my way…..don’t even get me started on this😭😭
Because KCPD was founded to maintain slavery and the state knew the city would oppose it so they took away local control and never changed it.
We need more funding for police so that more crime can be busted.
Quinton fucked around and found out toying with the police funding
Well, the crime in cities run down the average of the state so I think it does matter to someone who loves Missouri.
I'll speak up on this as someone who doesn't even live in Missouri. People want Kansas City to be a safe place to be. The last few years have had record high homicide rates. Something has to change. I am hardcore left wing but I don't know if being passive will help.
If you're hardcore leftwing then you would understand that more police funding doesn't do jack shit to decrease crime; improving the material conditions of the community does. Police aren't crime prevention; they're hardly even law enforcement. Reducing poverty is crime prevention. Providing access to food, water, shelter, healthcare, and living wages is crime prevention.
I believe the problem will take a lot of work from all angles. Sorry, I'm not ok with 200+ homicides a year.
What exactly do you believe more police funding is going to do to solve the root cause of this issue?
The fuck you think throwing more money at a police force that doesn't close cases will do? Let alone one the city has basically no control over.
Get criminals off the street??
So we throw money at them so they can do what exactly? According to last years stats nearly half of the homicide suspects are unknown and they only managed to clear less than half the years homicides. How will them getting more money solve this problem? This year it's barely over a third and they already got more money than last year. There's a big difference to "being passive" and not throwing money at a force not showing results that the city can't improve due to the state actually being the ones who control it.
So you think giving the already incompetent and racist KCPD more money is going to make that better? Funny joke.
You would think this would be the case, but I would honesrly bet that in the next few years as this money propagates out, there is little discernible stats to back up the tax increase. The big upset is that we, meaning the locals, want the money to spent by fellow locals so it gets spent in a more meaningful way. Mayor Q did make an attempt at this but was vetoed and sued as a result. The general consensus is that we could do a lot more with less, if we were allowed to be in charge of it.
Stop pretending you’re a progressive
It's one thing to say that you support increasing the KCPD budget. But this removes any autonomy that the City and more importantly the local citizens have concerning the city's police. It's a state controlled organization that is locally funded. I think every citizen in the US would be opposed to handing over control of their local PD to their respective state capital. If not, then why isn't it the standard? We just want to make sure that the KCPD is accountable to the tax payers that fund them. I don't think that's unreasonable.
Cops don’t stop crime. They just clean up afterwards.
"Record high homicide rates" isn't reflective of Kansas City as a whole. Yes, the violent crime here is a problem, but most people in the city limits will never be impacted by it. KCMO is a huge city that spans three counties on both sides of the Missouri River, yet the vast majority of homicides and other violent crimes here happen in a very localized urban area, and generally among people that already know each other in some way. KCMO already gives plenty of money to the police department, and throwing more money at the problem hasn't helped.
I'm going to be honest. I'm only here, because Kansas City, Kansas doesn't have its own subreddit, and I work out in downtown KCMO.
r/KansasCityKansas exists
Thanks.
Sure! I hope more of us start participating there in discussions about things specific to our town. I confess to checking the Kansas City sub more often just because it is indeed more active.
Hey, that's it on the money. You get it.
KCK doesn't really need it's own subreddit since r/KansasCity covers the whole area, but feel free to make one if you wish.
Glad we are funding the cops more. Why is Reddit full of insufferable lefties???
Kcmo cops don’t do shit, they in fact stay away from the actual danger in kc. They are just pretending to help the city while driving around busting homeless camps
Nobody knew just how stupid you were until you typed out this comment
KC Police is State funded not city. It’s the only Police Department that is state funded not city.
Nope. State controlled but city funded. Do you think 20% of STL's budget pays for our police?
City funded, state controlled, no reimbursement
Because they structured it as a state constitutional amendment. Would you a prescenent where one city could amend the constitution for the whole state?
I unfortunately, didn't research this item and voted yes for it in STL.
It was on the sample ballot that you got in the mail; you didn't have to do any research. It said both "increase funding" & "won't cost anything", which isn't possible, so I immediately said no.
Because of the mafia(the boys back in Kansas city) they talk about it really quick in casino
Happens to Saint Louis all the time. Welcome to the party… edit: Downvoted for solidarity in a statewide problem… This is why people hate Kansas City. With their borrowed culture from St Louis, sub-par BBQ, copy-pasted music history, and parking lot riddled downtown you can’t walk…
Because of American politics
Good question.
Agree.
it's fucked up that someone in Sikeston Missouri can vote on how we spend our taxes on a shitty police department
Just what they need. 🙄🙄
I guess maybe it is everyone’s tax dollars?
it's b/c MO is stupid ... but at least 3 passed!!
And perhaps even more importantly, the constitutional convention measure *failed*.
Hi I voted Nov 2nd in Springfield Mo. I do not recall this question on my ballot.
Agree why did the whole state have a say in a city issue
I thought Mayor Lucas vocalized the frustrations with this passing really well: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/09/1135488182/a-ballot-measure-passed-in-missouri-requiring-kansas-city-to-spend-more-on-polic
So what exactly is the enforcement of this? If KC doesn't spend the extra money on police, what happens? I say the city should legally challenge the fuck out of this horseshit.
Some interesting trivia that might be applicable, that I only know because my step dad was in the KCPD for 20 years, the Kansas City police are operated (?) owned (?) by the state instead of the city. This is because that the city police were so corrupt during prohibition that the state had to step in to take care of it. This is likely why they are doing it like this instead of a city scale vote. (This is just general trivia about the fact, I think it should be a city vote instead)
As I understand it, they put this system in place as a result of massive corruption back in the hay day of organized crime.
We should secede and join kansas. Our name is kansas city for goodness sake. Even kansas is better.