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| Representing
Kansas City's Finest |
History
of the Kansas City Fraternal Order of Police |
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The
Kansas City Police Officers were represented by
a regional Fraternal Order of Police lodge for
most of the 1990's until 1999, when the Kansas
City membership split off to create the Kansas
City Police Officers Association. This move was
spurred on by Kansas City Police Officers who
felt that a single lodge representing only Kansas
City Police Officers would give the members an
identity, direction, and a singular purpose -
moving the Lodge ahead in it's mission to represent
Kansas City, Missouri Police Officers in the best
way possible, through formal recognition. This
primary focus of the Lodge in obtaining collective
bargaining was made clear through the statement
of the Lodge mission in the preamble of the KCFOP
Bylaws.
At
a general membership meeting on November 2, 2004
- the membership accepted the following revised
preamble in the constitution and bylaws of the
KCFOP declaring the mission and focus of our organization.
The new mission statement provides a definitive
declaration of the direction of the noble pursuit
of representing Kansas City's Finest as follows:
We,
the members of the Kansas Fraternal Order of Police
Lodge #99, a Missouri non profit corporation,
believing that by our association we have the
facility of mutual interchange of thought, information
and opinion, and the opportunity to demonstrate
the sincerity of our purpose; whereby the experience
of each becomes common to all, and believing this
association results in a greater development of
our intellectual, professional, moral and social
faculties, enabling us to share in the gains and
honors of advancing social order; and further
believing that education, industry, and moral
worth are the true standards of greatness, do
hereby pledge ourselves to the use of all honorable
means to promote professionalism and fraternalism
among our members; as well as our Brother and
Sister members throughout the State and Grand
Lodge.
We therefore form and hereby associate for the
following purposes:
To support and defend the Constitution of the
United States of America and the State of Missouri;
to inculcate loyalty and allegiance to the United
States of America; to promote and foster the impartial
enforcement of law and order; to improve the individual
proficiency of our members in the performance
of their duties; to encourage sociable, charitable,
and educational activities among all law enforcement
officers; to ensure that all members are treated
fairly and honorably without regard to race, color,
creed, national origin or gender; to foster a
police environment which is inclusive of, and
addresses the concerns of, all segments of the
community; to advocate and strive for uniform
application of the civil merit system for all
law enforcement officers; to create a condition
of esprit de corps, ensuring fidelity to duty
under all conditions and circumstances; to provide
benefits to our members; to promote public service
programs to the community; to cultivate a spirit
of fraternalism and mutual helpfulness among our
membership and the people we serve; to increase
the efficiency of the police profession; to advance
the moral, social, and material standing of the
members of the Lodge by honorable and lawful means;
and, as a labor organization, to endeavor to achieve
collective bargaining with binding arbitration;
and thus more firmly establish the confidence
of the public in the service that is dedicated
to the protection of life and property.
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The
emblem adopted by the Kansas City Fraternal Order of Police
is designed to remind the membership
of the duties that are expected of them as a citizen,
a police officer and a member of the lodge. The
badge is that of a Kansas City police officer
containing the star of the Fraternal Order of
Police. This distinctive symbol represents the
individuality of our membership and signifies
that the KCFOP is a member of the Fraternal Order
of Police that in turn represents more than 324,000
sworn law enforcement members nationwide.
The
KCFOP shall have the sole and exclusive right
to authorize, control, license and restrict
the use of the name, insignia or emblem and
mark, trademark or service mark of the Kansas
City Police Officers' Association. The KCFOP
Executive Board shall police the trademark of
the KCFOP and shall grant or refuse to grant
permission to use the trademark of the KCFOP.
Use of the KCFOP emblem without express written
permission of the KCFOP Executive Board is strictly
forbidden.
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As
the vast majority of officers in Missouri, including
the St Louis POA, were currently represented by
lodges who were affiliated with the Fraternal Order
of Police, in the early months of 2000 the KCFOP
chose to affiliate with the Fraternal Order of Police
as the 'KCFOP - Missouri Fraternal Order of Police
Lodge #99'. The FOP affiliation was chosen at the
time as the best vehicle to represent the members
of the KCFOP. As a symbol of this affiliation the
FOP star was placed within the KCPD badge creating
the formal symbol of the KCFOP. |
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Lodge
Growth and the Pursuit of Recognition |
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This
fledgling lodge, created in the waning months of
1999 quickly grew to more than 800 sworn law enforcement
members. This number represented an overwhelming
majority of the police officers, detectives, and
sergeants on the Department. It was clear that the
KCFOP's mission and service inspired the majority
of the sworn members of the Kansas City, Missouri
Police Department to join the Lodge in the pursuit
of formal recognition for its members. Police representing
police was an obvious choice of the rank and file
members of the Kansas City Police Department. The
Lodge distributed pledge cards in 2004 and received
more pledge cards requesting the KCFOP be the bargaining
representative for sworn officers below the rank
of captain than the KCFOP actually had in membership.
A clear statement that the sworn membership of the
Kansas City Police Department continued to choose
that the KCFOP be their bargaining representative.
In
2008, the KCFOP was reorganized to become the KCFOP
Lodge #99.
Many
efforts were coordinated with the KCFOP to further
the pursuit of formal recognition and collective
bargaining for the KCFOP including the organization
of a civilian political action committee independent
of the KCFOP Executive Board. This political action
committee or PAC was named the Friends of the KCFOP
and shortly after creation developed a website - The
Friends of the KCFOP to promote education
of the public regarding issues affecting law enforcement
in Kansas City and to promote public service to
the community.
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KCPD's
Unique State Control System |
Those
unfamiliar with the Kansas City, Missouri Police
Department may be surprised to learn that the KCPD
is governed by a Board of Police Commissioners appointed
in staggered terms by the governor. The KCPD shares
this unique status with the St Louis, Missouri Police
Department and both officers of Kansas City, Missouri
and St Louis are designated Officers of the State
of Missouri. Although KCPD officers are designated
Officers of the State of Missouri statutes outline
the authority of our officers as having jurisdiction
within the city limits of Kansas City and on any
properties owned by the city that may lie outside
the city limits.
(See
Missouri Revised Statutes - Chapter 84)
The
state-appointed Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners
was established with the first appointed board members
selected by Governor Charles Hardin in 1874 when
the "Metropolitan Police Law" established
Kansas City's police department. Governor Hardin
appointed Missouri artist George Caleb Bingham,
W. M. McDearmon and H.J. Latshaw as the first Board
of Police Commissioners. Bingham became the first
President of the Board and led the Board in selecting
Thomas Speers as the first Chief of Police, a post
Speers held for 21 years.
The
state-appointed board of commissioners was dismantled
in 1932 when the police department was brought under
home rule but was again established in 1939 in an
effort to wrest control of the police department
away from the corrupt Pendergast political machine
by Governor Lloyd Stark, who appointed another board
of police commissioners. The state-appointed board
of commissioners (BOPC) continues to preside over
the KCPD to this day.
(Read
more... article on 1939 KCPD take-over) |
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Click HERE to peruse the history of the original 1969 Kansas
City Police Officers Association and a manual from
the first KCFOP Lodge. |
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Click HERE for the history of the Fraternal Order of Police |
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