Northeast News
November 2, 2011

Kansas City’s Board of Police Commissioners are questioning whether or not enough minorities are working on the new East Patrol Police Campus/crime lab project.

Commissioner Alvin Brooks addressed the issue during the Oct. 25 BOPC meeting. Brooks said he witnessed one minority working on the South Patrol Division project and hoped it wasn’t the same ratio for the East Patrol project.

“It just doesn’t make sense,” Brooks said of seeing only one minority worker on the job.

More minorities must be assigned to work on the East Patrol and crime lab project, especially since the new location is centered in the heart of the African American community, he said.

Commissioner Lisa Pelofsky agreed.

“I just hate to see our representation look like it looks in a room filled with African American residents and with very little minorities talking,” Pelofsky said of recent East Patrol/crime lab project community meetings. “I think this is public money that needs to be spent appropriately (in representing minorities).”

Kansas City Architect Eric Bosch further updated the commission on the East Patrol and crime lab project. City officials are continuing to hold weekly public meetings and property appraisals will be handed to the city at the beginning of December, he said. Environmental and historical studies are currently being conducted on properties within the boundaries between Prospect and Brooklyn and 26th and 27th Streets. For well-built and historical homes, materials will be repurposed in courtyards and other areas as much as possible, he said.

Master planning won’t begin until the first part of next year.

Homeowners in the affected area will now be eligible for larger relocation packages since Kansas City entered into an agreement with federal officials at Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

To receive the HUD designation, the project had to be located in a blighted area. Approximately 60 residents will benefit from the new federal agreement, said Don Frank, division manager of Right of Way and Relocation Services.

“We are working with individual property owners and renters to share the new relocation benefits package with them,” Frank said. “Our staff is helping to determine their relocation needs and preferences, explain the new benefits, and inform the residents they will receive their offers in early 2012.”

Another benefit of the HUD agreement is access to Section 3, which helps foster local economic development, neighborhood economic improvement and individual self-sufficiency through job training, employment and contracting opportunities for low or very low income residents. For more information on Section 3, contact the city’s Human Relations Department, (816) 513-6817.