Kansas City Police Department
The Kansas City Police Department is the principal law enforcement agency serving Kansas City, Missouri. Missouri Supreme Court Justice Brent Powell swore in Richard C. Smith as the 45th Chief of Police of the Kansas City Missouri Police Department on August 15, 2017. Col. Smith, who served as head of the KCPD's Central Patrol Division, became the city's 45th police chief on August 15, 2017.
Overview
The Mission of the Kansas City Missouri Police Department is to protect and serve with professionalism, honor and integrity.Kansas City Police Department is the largest city police agency in Missouri, based on number of employees, city population, and geographic area served.
Board of Commissioners
The Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners is responsible for the operation of the KCPD. The Board sets policy, makes promotions, holds both closed and open meetings and coordinates with the Chief of Police in providing police services to the citizens. Four of the five members of the board are selected by the governor of the state of Missouri, following approval of the Missouri legislature, with the mayor serving as the fifth member. Commissioners serve four year terms, however they serve at the pleasure of the governor and can be replaced.Currently, those Commissioners are:
Current membership
Commissioned/sworn positions
The structure of the Senior Command staff of The Police is:| Title | Insignia |
| Chief of Police | |
| Deputy Chief | |
| Major | |
| Captain | |
| Sergeant | |
| Police Officer | |
| Probationary Police Officer |
Sidearms
The main sidearm used by the KCMO PD is the Glock 22 or Glock 23 both in.40 S&W. Officers also had the choice of choosing the Smith & Wesson Sigma but that is no longer chosen by officers as was the S&W 4026 .40 S&W which had the KCMO PD Badge and KCPD engraved on the slide.History
The Kansas City Police Department was founded in 1874. George Caleb Bingham was the first president of the Board of Police Commissioners. The first Chief was Thomas M. Speers.The Kansas City preventive patrol experiment was a landmark experiment carried out between 1972 and 1973 by the Kansas City Police Department. It was evaluated by the Police Foundation. It was designed to test the assumption that the presence of police officers in marked cars reduced the likelihood of a crime being committed. It was the first study to demonstrate that research into the effectiveness of different policing styles could be carried out responsibly and safely.
Media
The Tactical Response Teams of KCPD was featured in A&E's reality series Kansas City SWAT.The Kansas City, Missouri Police Department has been portrayed in numerous episodes of the television show COPS.
The Homicide Unit of the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department was portrayed in the A&E Network's documentary series entitled The First 48.
A viral video circulated on Twitter showing KCPD officers assaulting nonviolent protesters, bringing national attention to the department.