Rick Smith failed Kansas City and its police. He’s wrong for US Marshal job | Opinion

Editorials Rick Smith failed Kansas City and its police. He’s wrong for US Marshal job

Opinion By The Kansas City Star Editorial Board December 20, 2025 5:07 AM

If the former KCPD chief runs the Marshal’s office like the KC police, we have serious concerns. If the former KCPD chief runs the Marshal’s office like the KC police, we have serious concerns.

Not to put the cart before the horse here, but any talk of former Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith being considered as a candidate for U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Missouri should be a non-starter.

Smith told The Star Thursday that U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt’s office reached out to him months ago to gauge his interest in the federal law enforcement position. That was a while ago. If there was some validity to Smith’s claims, wouldn’t he at least be in recent contact with Schmitt or his representatives? Officials with the White House and Sen. Josh Hawley’s office did not respond to requests for comment, according to The Star.

When we contacted Schmitt’s office, staffers would neither confirm nor deny this developing news. So we must ask: Is Smith a legitimate candidate for this role? We’d be disappointed if he were.

The way this process works, Smith would have to be nominated by President Donald Trump’s administration to head the U.S. Marshal’s office here. These nominations are often based on recommendations from senators such as Schmitt.

Then, after some serious vetting from the Senate Judiciary Committee, Smith would need to be confirmed by a majority vote from the full U.S. Senate.

Let’s just say, we’re a long way from that.

While it’s premature to say for certain that Smith’s candidacy is legitimate, any thought of a federal appointment gives us significant pause.

In this role, Smith would be responsible for collaring federal suspects — or “bad guys,” as Smith likes to label people — even before they are accused of wrongdoing.

Based on Smith’s work here as police chief, he isn’t fit for this job. If Missouri’s junior senator is contemplating supporting the ex-chief for a powerful federal law enforcement role, we strongly recommend against it.

Chief left KCPD under scrutiny

Smith was Kansas City’s top cop from 2017 to 2022. He retired amid scrutiny from local civil rights groups and community organizations. More than once, this editorial board called on Smith to resign — yet repeated demands by community leaders for the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners to fire him were routinely ignored.

We’ve long held that Smith’s leadership style allowed beat cops to behave in a discriminatory and abusive fashion. To be blunt: Rogue cops flourished in Kansas City during Smith’s tenure — there’s no sugarcoating that. If he is indeed a candidate for this very important federal position, Schmitt’s office must rescind its support.

Smith was chief here for five years. Nothing we saw during that time suggests he is a fair arbiter of the law. Under his watch, multiple unarmed Black men were fatally shot by police who remained on the force.

Civil rights leader Gwen Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, told The Star that Smith broke trust with the community because of his “inability to fairly and effectively police in a diverse city.”

“In my opinion, Smith is a poor leader and a racist,” Grant said in a statement she later sent to us.

In fact, during Smith’s first three years as chief, Kansas City police shot and killed twice as many Black men as the first three years under the previous chief, Darryl Forte, a Black man.

Many of those shooters were repeat offenders such as Blayne Newton, a notorious bad actor who has at least three on-duty deaths on his resume. In addition, he has faced credible accusations of using excessive force on women. Newton’s untoward acts have cost taxpayers millions of dollars in settlements.

Yet, Smith (as well as his replacement, current Chief Stacey Graves) kept Newton on the force.

Another officer, Dylan Pifer, killed unarmed Terrence Bridges and lied about the dying man as he took his last breath, court records showed. This fatal shooting cost Kansas City taxpayers $5 million in settlement claims.

Let’s not forget Pifer’s involvement in the brutalization of a 15-year-old Black teenager. Pifer was accused of aggressively handcuffing the teen and restraining him while his partner Sgt. Matthew Neal — another rogue officer who operated under Smith’s watch — slammed the boy’s face into the pavement. Neal broke the teen’s teeth, and he required six stitches to treat a gash on his forehead.

Neal later pleaded guilty to assaulting the young man.

Smith was police chief when former officers Matthew Brummett and Charles Prichard were charged with felony assault for allegedly using excessive force on Breona Hill, a transgender woman from Kansas City.

And who could forget Smith’s reaction when former Detective Eric DeValkenaere killed Cameron Lamb in Lamb’s backyard in 2019? We haven’t.

“Everyone is good, house is clear. Bad guy’s dead,” Smith said shortly after he arrived at the crime scene.

Evidence presented at DeValkenaere’s 2021 bench trial suggeststhe disgraced detective falsely claimed that Lamb pointed a gun at his partner. DeValkenaere was found guilty of second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action, and was sentenced to six years in prison. But former Missouri Gov. Mike Parson commuted the sentence.

To be clear: We don’t doubt Smith’s sincere desire for law and order. But his head-banging, wagon-circling, “bad guy’s dead” approach to law enforcement is a relic of another, less understanding era. As Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas told us Friday morning: “With respect to our current chief’s predecessor, he was not a bad police chief for 1989. 2020? I don’t know if that was an appropriate match.”

KC homicide rates rose to record levels

Protecting abusive officers and killer cops isn’t the only reason we can’t support the notion of Smith joining the ranks of federal law enforcement. His track record reducing violent crime in Kansas City was disastrous. After Smith moved away from the city’s main antiviolence strategy NoVA in 2017, homicide rates soared to record levels.

And there were other notable transgressions during his stint, including the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation into KCPD’s hiring and employment practices, and the department’s asymmetrical response to the police brutality protests of 2020. Images of Kansas City officers deploying excessive force — including tear gas, pepper spray and “less-lethal munitions” — against peaceful demonstrators went viral across social media, bringing our city shameful international attention.

Some KCPD officers also claimed discrimination because of Smith’s unfair grooming policies, and settled out of court for about $90,000.

Add up all of these issues and more, and it’s quite clear: Rick Smith is not qualified to be U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Missouri.