City leaders directed staff to identify ways to expand shelter capacity, strengthen outreach and connect unhoused residents to hospitality jobs ahead of the World Cup. The committee also approved a 6% increase to water and sewer rates.
police
Posted inMeeting Notes
City workers and residents speak out at Kansas City’s final community budget hearing
Public comments in the Northland focused on transit funding, arts support, violence prevention programs and wages for city employees.
Posted inMeeting Notes
Residents weigh in on transit and World Cup spending at Kansas City’s second budget hearing
Comments focused on public transportation, violence prevention and proposed cuts to nonprofit programs in the city’s proposed $2.5 billion budget, with some also questioning World Cup-related transit and infrastructure priorities.
Posted inMeeting Notes
Transit, public safety and the arts take center stage at Kansas City budget hearing
During the first public hearing on Kansas City’s proposed $2.5 billion budget, residents urged the council to reconsider cuts to neighborhood and arts programs and increase funding for public transit.
Posted inCivic Engagement
Kansas City police jump-started a missing persons unit. Now they need to build trust with Black families
Takeaways: T’Montez Hurt had just started working at a Price Chopper in Grain Valley to save money after a semester away from Missouri Western State University. Then in the early hours of Feb. 1, the 19-year-old placed an anxious phone call to his grandmother, Tecona Donald-Sullivan, saying he thought he’d been drugged. The day before […]
Posted inLocal Government
The Wichita police citizens board checked more complaints this year than the last five years
The Wichita Police Department closed nearly twice as many complaints about officer conduct in 2023 as it did five years ago, but the department says that shouldn’t set off alarms. Instead, it’s a sign of progress. The department resolved 359 complaints in 2019 compared to 646 last year. The increase stems from gradual changes with […]
Posted inHealth, Local Government, State Government
The outlook for 10 things Kansas City wants from the Missouri legislature in 2024
Kansas City’s Statehouse lobbying team holds big ambitions, and likely even bigger obstacles, for the Missouri legislative session that starts next month.
Here’s a list of some of Kansas City’s priorities this year, ranked by likelihood.
Posted inLocal Government
Kansas City, Kansas, let police exploit Black people, lawsuit says
Five Black women filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas. The suit contends that officials permitted an “open and notorious police protection racket” to victimize the Black community while detectives committed “regular acts of humiliation and exploitation.” Filed late Friday, the 138-page suit names four […]
Posted inDIY Democracy, Elections, Local Government
Candidates for Wichita City Council answer your questions ahead of general election
Mail-in and in-person voting begin this month. To help voters make their decisions, The Wichita Beacon asked all Wichita City Council candidates to respond to questions submitted by readers. Questions focused on water, policing and housing. City Council Districts 2, 4 and 5 have elections Nov. 7. Only residents within those districts can vote on […]
Posted inLocal Government
‘It’s a terror to the community’: How Wichita police training in public housing affects the neighborhood
The city’s predominantly Black neighborhoods — which already see a disproportionate police presence — are now seeing police show up in tactical gear to raid vacant buildings even when nothing is wrong. Officers dressed in military-style fatigues, carrying riot shields and displaying weapons began using the vacant housing for training exercises a year ago, part […]