By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Internal Police Department memos paint a depressing picture of yet another taxpayer-financed project plagued by bad feelings on all sides.
In this case, Police Chief Jim Corwin is in no hurry to hash out all the challenges that go along with starting up a regional jail — despite his public claim that he wants to close the 8th floor police jail at department headquarters.
Jackson County wants to house those prisoners at a newly renovated county facility, along with prisoners from the Municipal Correctional Institution, which the City Council has voted to close.
A face-to-face meeting involving Corwin, City Manager Wayne Cauthen, Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders — with a few appropriate aides in the room to work out the details — would work wonders for building the best-possible regional jail.
But Corwin’s contempt for Cauthen — added to his distrust of the county staff — has bogged down the Police Department’s part of the project. And memos from the chief’s command staff show a clear prejudice against making progress on it.
On April 23 of this year, Capt. Don Sight, commander of the police detention unit, issued a memo that listed 10 “requirements” for the county to meet before the department would close its holding cell.
The memo also added more “essential and necessary” items such as offices with phones but also “access to vending machines or something similar” because “detectives sometimes provide suspects with candy bars, chips or sodas during long interrogations.”
On May 26, Major David Zimmerman, fiscal division commander, said a county summary of the project was “fraught with numerous unanswered questions and potential pitfalls if a final agreement is not succinctly written….”
Over the next five pages, Zimmerman claimed the police could not provide requested funds for the project “due to a $15 million funding gap” from the city, questionably asserted that there would not be much if any savings for the police, said the county might pay less to its prison employees than the police pay for similar work at its jail (and that’s a bad thing for taxpayers how?), and issued his demands for what the financial agreement should include.
Oh, and on the last page, Zimmerman wrote, “I fully support the concept of removing the Police Department from the detention business.”
With supporters like Zimmerman, this project doesn’t need enemies.
On June 3 Cauthen wrote to “strongly urge” Corwin to make a decision on whether to close the police jail; Corwin responded that it would take at least a week to put together a “fact-based project.”
On June 12, Sight produced a six-page memo detailing some of the same questions that had existed about the project for weeks, asked some new questions (is the Downtown Council cool with having more prisoners downtown?) and listed six “requirements” for what the department now wanted. Sight rated them from high to low priorities.
What a surprise: He listed all six as “high” priorities.
By late June, Jackson County officials understandably had grown tired of playing the waiting game with the police. Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Shelley Temple-Kneuvean wrote on June 23 to Corwin and others in his command staff, “As for the list of questions you provided, in most cases we have talked about each of these issues at our meetings and believe there is some consensus on how each issue would be approached.”
So far the Board of Police Commissioners has backed Corwin’s passive/aggressive approach to this matter. That’s too bad.
Corwin should cut through the red tape, get his underlings in the same room with Sanders’ prison brass and work out the key details. At least that’s how an effective administrator working on the public’s behalf would approach this job.
Editorial Board member Yael T. Abouhalkah can be reached at or 816-234-4887. Read his blog at voices.kansascity.com
Delicious
Digg
Corwin is the same Chief that .....
This is the same Chief that changed the way the KCPD reports it's national crime stats, which came up better in reality it was worse. This is the same Chief that runs the KCPD, which is now under Federal Investigation by the US Department of Justice for baised hiring and promotion practices of minorities. This is the same Chief that threatened to take officers off the street if the PD's budget was cut rather than consolidate cillivan service position within City Hall. This is the same Chief that manages a department that was recently found via an internal audit to significantly abuse the City's take home vehicle policy. The audit found improper and poor record keeping (this is the police department that puts people in jail and they cant keep vehicle records properly). This is the same Chief that is still Chief, go figure...
Chief Corwin you need to show more leadership and accountability. Be a part of the solution. Be accountable to the citizens.
yawn
Anywho -
Where is the recent comments on the right side of the page?? If I have to search for APOP and Interfaces comments then their ignorance will live on uncontested.