Kansas City police officer files lawsuit alleging forced discrimination in minority neighborhoods

The lawsuit alleges that Kansas City police officers were told it would be easier to write up multiple citations during traffic stops in minority neighborhoods.

A white Kansas City, Missouri, police officer has filed a lawsuit with a slew of complaints against the Kansas City Police Department, including accusations that some in the division regularly used racist language and forced badge bearers to use racist policing tactics.

The lawsuit — which was filed mid-March in Jackson County Court by 21-year police force veteran Edward Williams, 44 — alleges that KCPD officers were told to only respond to distress calls from predominately white neighborhoods and to target minority neighborhoods for issuing tickets.

According to NPR, officers were told it would be easier to write up multiple citations during traffic stops in minority neighborhoods. They were allegedly threatened with unfavorable shifts or told they would be kicked out of the traffic unit if they were unable to meet ticket quotas — which are illegal, according to Missouri law.

Rick Smith, the former Kansas City police chief who retired in April 2022 after five years, was allegedly the ringleader of this behavior, according to the complaint, per NPR. The current chief, Stacey Graves, said last week the squad does not enforce the law based on demographics.

Williams says that he was retaliated against for being a whistleblower and was discriminated against after an injury. He is seeking monetary damages, per NPR.

The Kansas City Police Department has been plagued with accusations of racism for years. According to The Kansas City Star, police data shows that the KCPD used violence over 130 times during the summer protests in 2020. The following year, the killing of a Black man by police while at a convenience store sparked even more outrage.

In 2021, various civil rights organizations, including the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, signed a letter urging the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the department after reports of internal racism and instances of violence against Black and Latino people.

“Kansas City has experienced a consistent pattern of systemic violations including police-involved shootings with no accountability, biased and unreasonable searches and seizures, arrests without warrants, and abusive practices by plainclothes units,” the groups said in the letter, per NPR.

In September 2022, the DOJ announced it had opened an investigation into the alleged racist hiring practices and treatment of Black officers in the division.

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