When you are in charge of a city but not the most visible institution that operates within it, a certain kind of frustration builds up. The mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, Quinton Lucas, has been dealing with that annoyance for years, and he recently stopped using tactful language. He referred to the police force in Kansas City as a “colonial system.” According to him, it is fundamentally at odds with the ideals of the diverse city it serves and is anti-Black and anti-immigrant. Mayors typically don’t publicly say things like that about their departments. You can tell how far the tension has gone because Lucas said it in public and meant every word.
In contemporary American governance, the system Lucas is criticizing is truly out of the ordinary. The city budget covers the costs of Kansas City’s police force, but it has no authority over it. The Governor of Missouri appoints the members of the Board of Police Commissioners, which oversees the Kansas City Police Department and is not elected by or answerable to the city’s citizens. The governor’s appointees hold the actual balance of power, with the mayor serving as one voice among several on the board. This arrangement dates back to the Civil War era, when the state government of Missouri took direct control of Kansas City’s police force and never fully returned it because they were suspicious of the city’s political allegiances. In 2013, St. Louis was able to regain local authority despite facing the same structure. With far less success, Kansas City has been attempting the same thing.
It’s not difficult to understand why it hasn’t worked. Kansas City is one of the most consistently Democratic cities in Missouri, while Republicans control the state legislature. The Republican-controlled legislature in Jefferson City has shown little interest in facilitating the return of police control to the city, which would entail giving it to a Democratic mayor and city council. The regularity with which reform initiatives have been proposed, discussed, and thwarted begins to resemble intentional leverage retention rather than policy disagreement. The department is funded by Kansas City. The terms are set by Jefferson City, about 130 miles east. There is no direct electoral mechanism for the residents of Kansas City’s neighborhoods, especially the Black and immigrant communities Lucas mentioned, to hold the department’s governing board responsible.
Blue City, Red State: Kansas City’s Mayor Called His Own Police Department ‘Colonial’ — And He Meant It
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| City | Kansas City, Missouri |
| Mayor | Quinton Lucas (Democrat) |
| State | Missouri (Republican-controlled legislature) |
| Political Dynamic | Democratic city governed under Republican state oversight on policing |
| Police Governance Structure | Kansas City Police Department governed by a state-appointed Board of Police Commissioners — not the city |
| Board of Police Commissioners | Members appointed by the Missouri Governor, not elected by or accountable to KC residents |
| City’s Role in KCPD Budget | Kansas City funds the department but does not control it |
| Mayor’s Description of System | “Colonial system” — “anti-Black,” “anti-immigrant” |
| State Capital | Jefferson City, Missouri (~130 miles east of Kansas City) |
| Reform Attempts | Repeatedly blocked by Republican state legislators |
| Historical Context | State control of KCPD dates to the Civil War era — one of only two remaining state-controlled city police departments in the US |
| Kansas City Political Lean | Heavily Democratic — reliably votes Democratic in national and statewide elections |
| Missouri Political Lean | Solidly Republican at the state level since early 2000s |
| Comparable Structure | St. Louis previously had state-controlled police; control returned to city in 2013 |
Kansas City is not the only place where this dynamic exists. State-level preemption on policing, housing, minimum wage, and a variety of other policy areas has become more prevalent in Democratic-leaning cities in Republican-controlled states across the nation. The age of the arrangement is what sets Kansas City apart. The majority of preemption disputes are relatively new; they resulted from the political climate that emerged after 2010, when Republican legislatures actively sought to limit the authority of cities due to redistricting and sustained majorities. The police governance structure in Kansas City is over a century older than all of that. It is an imposition from the Civil War era that has withstood Reconstruction, the civil rights movement, the crime wave of the 1990s, Ferguson, the 2020 national reckoning, and is still in place in 2026.
When Lucas uses the word “colonial,” it seems more like he is aiming for historical accuracy than rhetorical escalation. The original version of the building was created by a state government that didn’t think a city could run its own affairs. Black residents of a city whose racial demographics and political preferences have never neatly aligned with the state government that maintains control over their streets were the ones most impacted by that mistrust back then, and perhaps even now. Like most analogies, this one has its limitations. However, the underlying logic—local funding, external authority, and little accountability to those who are actually governed—is easy to compare.
It’s genuinely unclear what will happen next. Lucas has spoken up, which is important. In contrast to purely local reporting, the Guardian’s coverage of the dispute as part of a larger “blue city, red state” series indicates that the story is reaching a national audience, which creates a different kind of pressure. However, altering the structure necessitates either action from the Missouri legislature or a constitutional or legal challenge that completely reframes the issue. Neither route is guaranteed, nor is it quick. For the simple reason that the political incentives for those who would have to alter it point in the exact opposite direction, it’s possible that the arrangement will endure for an additional ten years.
In practically every quantifiable aspect, Kansas City differs from the city whose police department was turned over to the state in the 1860s. The economies, the geography of power, and the populations are all different. The fundamental reality that citizens of the city send money to a department they do not control and that those in charge of it are answerable to voters who reside somewhere else has not changed.
