Missouri controls how much Kansas City pays its police. Legislation would change that

Nearly six years ago, then-Mayor Sly James wanted his fellow Kansas City police commissioners to hire a former deputy chief from Detroit as the city’s next police chief. But the cost to hire her was more than what the city was authorized to pay.

At the time, James lamented that the Missouri law that set the maximum salary for Kansas City’s chief at $189,726 prevented the police department from attracting a wider crop of candidates.

That former Detroit deputy chief, Ulysha Reneé Hall, later became the first woman named chief of the Dallas Police Department and received $225,000 as a starting salary.

The job for the top cop in Kansas City went to Rick Smith, who stepped down in April after nearly five tumultuous years at the helm of the department.

To remedy the police department’s salary problem, Missouri state Reps. Mark Sharp and Chris Brown introduced separate pieces of legislation last week that would remove the maximum salary cap for the Kansas City police chief.

The legislation also would remove the requirement that applicants for chief be under 60 years of age and allow the police board to establish a salary range for officers.

“This puts us in a better position to have a little more flexibility when it comes to negotiating,” Sharp, a Kansas City Democrat, told The Star. “So if we’re looking at trying to attract some of the best chiefs, not just locally, not just in the state of Missouri but nationally, why would anyone want to come here if they’re really a solid candidate, knowing that they can make more money elsewhere in a city with less crime?

“So this (legislation) is keeping Kansas City competitive as far as tracking those individuals.”

The Kansas City department is overseen by a five-member board of police commissioners. Four are appointed by the governor and the Kansas City mayor fills one spot.

Missouri law sets the annual salary of the Kansas City chief and the department’s sworn officers.

When the commissioners appointed Stacey Graves as the chief late last year, it set her salary at $180,000. Smith earned $189,000 at the time he stepped down.

Graves earns far less than chiefs in peer cities and nearby departments.

Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum has an annual salary of $240,890. Raul Pazen, the police chief in Denver, makes $236,505. In Nashville, Police Chief John Drake is paid $234,000.

Neil Noakes, who leads the Fort Worth Police Department, another KCPD peer city, earned $227,136 in 2022, according to a salary database published by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Robert Tracy, the St. Louis police chief, has a base salary of $175,000 but the St. Louis Police Foundation kicks in another $100,000 annually. That means Tracy brings home $275,000 each year.

When Joseph Sullivan was appointed to lead the Wichita Police Department last fall, his yearly salary was set at $210,000. Frank Donchez, the Overland Park police chief, earned $193,346 in 2022.

Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum in Washington, D.C., said cities like Kansas City have to be competitive with their salaries in order to compete nationally. And the salary of $189,726 is below average, he said.

“So I think that removing the cap on the salary will allow the city more flexibility,” he said.

Mayor testifies

Mayor Quinton Lucas told the House Special Committee on Urban Issues last week that it was essential the police board have the flexibility to set the salary for the next chief and Kansas City officers.

“We want to make sure we have the tools to continue to take care of our officers, our command staff, and to make sure through the board of police commissioners we can be competitive with departments, not just in the Kansas City region but for us, other major cities, police departments all around the country,” Lucas said.

“We recognize right now recruiting is not just a local issue, it’s one where nationally people are looking to see how strong the Kansas City police department can be in taking care of its rank and file officers, making sure its administrators and leadership have opportunities.”

The executive search firm told commissioners that one of the three finalists for the recent opening for chief already was earning about $189,000 annually, board member Dawn Cramer said.

“We want to be able to keep up with the current trends and what’s happening out there. And it’s imperative as far as recruiting people, as far as retaining people,” she said.

The measure to remove the salary cap for the chief is another example in that effort, said Gwen Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City.

“I support any legislation that reduces the Missouri legislature’s egregious overreach into local governance and operations at KCPD,” Grant said. “In a perfect world, we would have control over the KCPD that we fund, and the City Council would approve salary ranges for the police chief.

“It makes no sense that an entity that does not fund the department would have any say in setting salary ranges, age requirements, or any other policies for that matter. The current legislation is archaic, and it served as a barrier to attracting a larger pool of candidates for police chief during the recent search. We need local control of our police department.”

Previous efforts

The last time the Missouri General Assembly increased the maximum salary for the Kansas City chief was in 2013. It was part of an amendment that included a bill that allowed Kansas City police officers to participate in political activities while they were off duty.

The proposed legislation sponsored by Sharp and Brown also seeks to remove the requirement that candidates for police chief be younger than 60 years old.

Sharp said the decision to set the age requirement for the police chief’s job was likely done decades ago. But the law prevents many qualified officers from applying for the job, he said.

The legislation introduced by Brown, a Kansas City Republican, also would eliminate existing salary ceilings for police officers — which are determined by rank.

Currently, a probationary KCPD officer can earn up to about $3,987 a month. The probation period lasts six months. The salary cap for police officers tops out at $6,958 a month. That amount doesn’t include if there are any cost of living increases after the top step, according to KCPD.

Police union officials have said the starting salary for new officers in Kansas City ranks among the lowest of surrounding law enforcement agencies. Many officers end up leaving Kansas City for better paying jobs in neighboring police departments.

Brown said he hopes his bill will help the city recruit and retain good officers.

“We’re at war with violent crime,” he said. “Anything we can do to try to bring more officers in and retain quality officers, get a chief that will be here for a while, you know, get good quality people in there, we need to do it.”