In an eleventh-hour budget request, Police Chief Terry Zeigler tonight asked for $1 million for body cameras for police officers.
Chief Zeigler cited the Dallas tragedy last week, where five police officers were killed by a sniper, and several others were injured. Attacks continued on Friday in Missouri and Georgia on police officers, he said. There were some calls on social media for more attacks.
“All these attacks on police officers appear to be over public outrage of two officer-involved shootings of African-American males,” Chief Zeigler said. One was in Baton Rouge, La., and the other in Minnesota. There is no reason to think anyone in Kansas City, Kan., is targeting officers, he added, and the community has always been patient in waiting to see how investigations turn out.
Some changes have already been made here last week, such as sending officers to calls two at a time, not singly, according to the police chief. He had been planning to do that later, but it was moved up to Friday. With two officers present, there will not be one officer waiting for the backup to arrive, he said.
Sixty-six percent of the department is trained in how to deal with mental illness, he said. There is also an emphasis on safety and courtesy, with cultural awareness and fair and impartial training.
On Friday, a meeting was held among the mayor, the administrator, the police chief and Commissioner Harold Johnson on what could be done to be more proactive, Mayor Mark Holland said.
“We should not be naïve that in Kansas City, Kan., we can have some of the same challenges that other communities can have,” Mayor Holland said. “We need to be as proactive and thoughtful as possible in how we proceed.”
Last year, the Police Department and UG turned down a $350,000 federal grant for police body cameras. The cost of the program was around $1 million and the Police Department lacked the additional fiber-optic network necessary for it, Chief Zeigler said. The commission allocated $500,000 to the department for fiber networking, but there were several roadblocks, he said. Google has told the department that its headquarters building is a no-build zone, and the Board of Public Utilities has told the department that it cannot have access to fiber networks, he said. He said he hoped to have these situations resolved by the end of the year.
Chief Zeigler said the estimated cost of maintaining the program was $100,000 a year, with every fifth year, about $1 million to update all the servers and infrastructure needs.
Today, Chief Zeigler requested funding for everything needed for a body camera program.
“Our world is rapidly evolving, and I do not believe we can wait to implement a program,” Chief Zeigler said.
He said the department will try to resubmit the grant for federal funding.
Administrator Doug Bach said it was brought to the commission so commissioners can prioritize the issues, and if the commission gives him direction on it, he will work on it. The funding might be found from within the current budget, he said.
His proposed budget last week contained several areas where the UG was trying to build up the reserve funds.
The Unified Government Commission listened receptively with support, and asked questions, but did not take action tonight on the police chief’s request.
Commissioner Mike Kane said with the times like they are right now, “it’s something we should do.” Commissioner Jane Philbrook agreed with Commissioner Kane.
Commissioner Harold Johnson supported the body camera program, also. He said all it would take is one civil lawsuit to justify the cost of the program.
“They’re not the end-all-be-all,” he said. “But they do tend to curb potential rogue atmospheres and rogue behaviors.”
“Body cameras are a tool,” Commissioner Johnson said, “simply a tool for our law enforcement officers to carry out a law. But the real issue is those laws need to be reviewed from the very top of our criminal justice system, particularly those that make it easy for officers to use deadly force rather than use opportunities to de-escalate situations. These things are not occurring in Wyandotte County, I’m thankful to hear that, but we understand the way the laws are right now, it encourages that kind of behavior because they know that this behavior will be exonerated and tolerated in a court of law.”
Commissioner Gayle Townsend said KCK police officers were being honored last week for their decisions and their judgment, and no camera would ever replace what an officer does to de-escalate and act appropriately to having a situation that is irreversible.
She recalled last year there were some issues that had to be addressed, such as constitutional issues, with the body cameras, plus there were police cars that didn’t have vehicle cameras yet.
In light of what’s happened recently, she said it was wise for the UG Commission to grant everything that could be done to implement the body cameras.
The commission tonight set a maximum mill levy for 2017 of 43.875 mills for the city of Kansas City, Kan., and 38.813 for Wyandotte County, plus a 12.5 mill levy for the downtown KCK area in the Self-Supporting Municipal Improvement District. The vote was 9-1.
If it wants, the commission can lower the rate later when it adopts the budget on July 28, according to Bach, but it can’t go any higher than the maximum set tonight.
Commissioner Hal Walker voted against the amount of the maximum mill levy, and said he realizes the commission can lower the maximum rate set tonight, but he was personally disappointed that the commission doesn’t set the maximum mill levy lower.
He said the national events that occurred last week were not something new, and that they had been happening for a number of years.
“A 1-mill levy reduction, which was what was proposed before tonight, is not acceptable to me, and I will not support that,” Commissioner Walker said.
While he may be the only “no” vote on the budget, he said he was convinced that the commission’s predecessors in government made a commitment to the taxpayers here that when this money came in from Village West, their payoff was going to be reduced taxes.
He said he doesn’t support holding the mill levy constant. He said he understood about Topeka and the property tax lid, and how it affects the local community.
“But if we don’t put ropes on ourselves, and people in the future, we’re never going to reduce taxes in this town,” Commissioner Walker said.
Bach last week proposed a $345.7 million budget and a property tax rate that was one mill less than the maximum level set tonight. One mill is about $1 million for the UG budget. Bach proposed reducing the property tax one mill for 2017 and two more mills for 2018.
At the next budget meeting, at 5 p.m. July 18 in the fifth floor conference room at City Hall, the UG will take up the question of whether there should be a tax reduction and how much it will be.
To hear more of the discussion from the Monday night budget workshop, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYROdij_qQw.
To see an earlier budget story from last week, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/ug-budget-proposal-recommends-1-mill-property-tax-reduction/.
