Former KCPD officer in Greitens ride-along won’t be charged, special prosecutor says

A former Kansas City police captain will not be criminally charged over his role in former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens’ ride-along in April that was condemned for politicizing the department, a special prosecutor said Friday.

David Loar, who was previously assigned to the North Patrol Division, faced a potential charge in Platte County Circuit Court. Loar is the son of Kansas City Council member Teresa Loar, who represents the city’s 2nd District in the Northland.

Greitens had used footage from the ride-along to promote his Republican U.S. Senate campaign.

“My conclusion is that there is no chargeable offense,” Special Prosecutor Darrell Moore said in a memo provided to The Star.

Loar was placed on paid suspension after the incident. He left the department June 12. Kansas City police have said state law bars them from disclosing whether Loar resigned or was fired.

At issue is a campaign video posted by Greitens on April 22 to social media that showed the former governor filming a ride-along with Kansas City police. The video was later removed following a request from the department. Greitens is running in the Aug. 2 Republican primary for U.S. Senate.

The video at one point showed an image of a KCPD vehicle. In one tweet, Greitens said, “Tonight, I’m riding along with @kcpolice,” according to screenshots posted online.

“David Loar was a superior officer, humble and a dedicated public servant,” said Nathan Garrett, a former president of the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners and an attorney representing Loar. “Mr. Moore came to the right conclusion and we’re grateful. It’s time for this statute to be reviewed — the spirit of which is wholly inconsistent with this occurrence. Our police agencies need more David Loars, not fewer.”

According to Moore’s memo, Loar notified his supervisors on April 7 that Greitens wanted to do a ride-along. The KCPD command staff discussed the request and determined there were no issues with allowing Greitens to take part in the ride-along while recognizing that “there had been a lot of stuff in the media. That he was kind of a ‘hot button topic,’ but had no convictions,” Moore said in the memo.

The majors approved the ride-along, “we are going to do the regular ride-a-long just as we would anyone else,” according to the memo.

In signing the ride-along application, Greitens wrote that the purpose of him doing the ride-along was to a “frontline understanding of challenges facing KCPD.” Greitens, the cameraman and his staff either ignored or declined requests for interviews during the investigation, Moore wrote.

Loar’s email, calendar, laptop and phone were reviewed and showed no evidence of Loar knowing that Greitens had planned to film the ride-along for a political ad, Moore wrote.

Moore also wrote that Greitens recorded a video of him standing in front of Loar’s unmarked patrol vehicle. Later as the vehicle pulled away, the emergency lights were activated on the patrol vehicle. However, the memo did not say whether Greitens requested Loar to activate the emergency lights.

After learning about the video, KCPD immediately requested the Greitens remove the video from the candidate’s Twitter account and YouTube page. Moore did not say how long the video had been uploaded on the campaign social media accounts before KCPD requested the video be removed.

Moore was appointed in late April by Presiding Platte County Judge Thomas Fincham days after KCPD began a criminal investigation of the incident. The department has said state law expressly bans political activity while working as a police officer.

The appointment of a special prosecutor to review the case came at the request of Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd, who cited a conflict-of-interest concern given Zahnd’s previous support for Greitens as a gubernatorial candidate.

Under Missouri law, a provision dealing with Kansas City police says officers and other department employees are prohibited from being connected to political work on behalf of candidates “while on duty or while wearing the official uniform of the department.”

A person convicted under the offense faces a maximum punishment of six months of imprisonment plus a $500 fine. Those convicted are also ineligible to work in “any position in the service of the police department” for any city in the state for a period of five years.

In a memo, Moore wrote that no evidence supported the idea that Loar had violated the law.

Greitens’ post of the ride-along caused a stir in Missouri political circles and received widespread condemnation.

Greitens has also been criticized by members of both major political parties for a controversial campaign advertisement in late June that cast the former governor as hunting “RINOs” — short for Republicans in name only.

That video, which showed the former governor brandishing a shotgun and calling for people to join him in RINO hunting, was widely viewed as condoning violence in situations where people disagree with one another on political issues.