A longtime police sergeant has filed a whistleblower lawsuit alleging she faced retaliation after reporting widespread timekeeping fraud in the Kansas City Police Department.
Sgt. Kathy Coots, who joined the department in 1996 and was promoted to sergeant in 2005, filed the petition for damages in Jackson County Circuit Court in May against the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners, alleging violations of Missouri’s Public Employee Whistleblower Statute.
She alleges she was stripped of duties, denied access to work systems, excluded from routine operations and ultimately forced into an involuntary transfer after raising concerns about misconduct by her commanding officers. That misconduct is alleged to include:…