But if you listened closely, it was the city government equivalent of a visit to the public woodshed, with Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves called to question on her recent memo outlining “drastic cost-reduction measures.”
In part, that’s because the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners approved paying out $10.9 million this fiscal year in legal settlements to people victimized by officers, ending up in the form of wrongful death lawsuits and other excessive force cases.
Because Kansas City is one of the only U.S. cities without local control of its police department, the five-member Board of Police Commissioners has oversight of KCPD. Four of the five members are appointed by the Missouri governor, and the mayor always has the fifth seat…