About the Kansas City Kansas Police Department

The Kansas City, Kansas Police Department was created in 1898, and at the time 46 persons made up the Department. In 1914 the Department was one of the first departments in the nation to institute a motorcycle unit. Additionally, the Department was an innovator in the field of criminal records information as early as 1918, having instituted the taking of photographs and fingerprints of all felons booked into jail. By the middle 1930s the community had incorporated 5 surrounding cities. Consequently, the Department had grown to 129 officers and police service had increased substantially to meet the needs of the City. In 1934 the Agency was the first police department, west of the Mississippi River, to install a two way radio communications system.

Today, the Kansas City Kansas Police Department is comprised of approximately 375 sworn officers and 175 civilian employees.  The police department is organized into to three large bureaus: Operations Bureau; Criminal Investigations Bureau; and, Services Bureau.

The Operations Bureau of the Kansas City Kansas Police Department, like most law enforcement agencies has the most number of employees working in uniformed positions and consists of Central Patrol, South Patrol, West Patrol, Mid-Town, Community Policing, School Resource and the Alarm Coordinator.

The Investigations Bureau is organized by type of crime.  According to the Kansas City Police Department Kansas website, “The Criminal Investigations Division was established to solve crimes via the processes of questioning victims, witnesses and suspects, accumulating physical evidence at the scene of a crime and by tracing stolen property or vehicles associated with a crime. The responsibility does not culminate here, for it is necessary that all facts and evidence be compiled and presented to the District Attorney’s Office for possible filing of charges against a suspect(s). The ultimate goal is to prove beyond any reasonable doubt, in a court of law, that the suspect in question did commit the specific crime for which he is charged.”

The Services Bureau has four divisions: They are the Community and Support Services Division, the Criminal Investigations Division, the Technical Services Division and the Executive Officer.

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