Family Says KCKPD ‘Intimidated’ Them While Investigating Intoxicated Officer Allegations | KCUR

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A white Kansas City, Kansas, police officer who was charged with responding to a call while intoxicated, passed a fitness for duty test and was cleared after an internal investigation, police say Tuesday.

The incident is unresolved, but the KCKPD statement says a review is underway by the Patrol Office Director, who will make a final recommendation. But the family who reported the incident dispute KCKPD’s allegation that they refused to cooperate with the investigation.

A family attorney now says they are considering all legal options against the officers involved and the department.

In a statement on Tuesday evening, a KCKPD spokesman said residents of the scene of the incident refused to work with police.

“It is important to note that the residents featured in the video have not filed a formal complaint and have refused to cooperate with the investigation,” the statement read.

This angered the family’s lawyer and local activists, who questioned why the family wanted to cooperate when they felt intimidated by KCKPD officers since the video was made public in January. According to the family’s attorney, Spencer Webster, KCKPD officers continued to drive past and stop at the house or monitor the family from a parking lot in front of their home.

The family are scared and constantly stare out the window, fearing the KCKPD is watching, Webster said.

The event, captured in a video that has gone viral, shows two officers responding to a custody dispute at a private home. One of the officers’ eyes blinked rapidly, his speech was slurred, and he leaned against a wall, clinging to the banister of a staircase. The owner, alarmed by the appearance of the officers, asks the second officer to call a sergeant, repeatedly saying aloud that this man is under the influence of something.

You brought a big cop into my house! said the owner. This cop is high as a kite!

Kansas City, Kansas, has a history of poor relations between the predominantly white police force and the black community, especially since the revelations of former detective Roger Golubskis. Activists have continually called for a US Department of Justice investigation into racism within the department.

A KCKPD statement reacting to the video in January blamed the unnamed officers’ conduct on a medical condition. He was placed on administrative leave pending the results of an internal investigation.

The internal affairs investigation determined that there was no wrongdoing on the part of the officer and that he had passed a fitness for duty exam conducted by several medical professionals, according to a press release sent Tuesday evening by Nancy Chartrand, spokesperson for the KCKPD.

Webster, the family’s attorney, said the family’s request to bring a supervising sergeant to the scene should be treated as a formal complaint.

I don’t know what other information they would need from the family given that a sergeant was on the scene as the situation unfolded, Webster said. But history has taught us that the KCKPD does not take citizens’ complaints seriously.

Lora McDonald, executive director of MORE2, a social justice organization in Kansas City, Kansas, saw photos of KCKPD cruisers near the family home and she believes they were trying to intimidate the family.

We have seen the video. Kansas City, Kansas, police department administration was appropriately engaged by the family, in real time, as the incident unfolded, she said. The family video documented the officer’s alarming behavior enough that it should have prompted immediate action by the KCKPD.

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