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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KSHB/KMCI) — An internal years-long investigation into the Kansas City Police Department’s Crimes Against Children unit resulted in disciplinary actions against 17 officers, including seven who are no longer with the department, Police Chief Rick Smith announced Tuesday.
The internal investigation identified 149 cases from the Crimes Against Children unit that “did not receive the attention they needed,” Smith wrote in a blog post . The cases spanned from 2011 to 2016.
Smith said that the investigation, which began in 2015 , found failures at both the “highest levels” of the department and among individual officers.
“This investigation revealed issues with the organization as well as individual commanders, supervisors and detectives,” Smith wrote. “I am disappointed because I know we are better than this.”
On the organizational level, Smith said there were “no processes in place” to address detectives’ large caseloads. In one example, a detective was investigating 80 cases a month, Smith said.
Smith said that veteran detectives from other units were put on special assignment in 2016 to take over cases within the Crimes Against Children unit. Later, new detectives were permanently assigned to the unit, which now has 10 detectives, two more than it previously had, and two sergeants, Smith said.
“The conclusion of our internal investigation into the Crimes Against Children Section marks the end of a regrettable time period in which the Kansas City Missouri Police Department failed to serve child victims in the way they needed and deserved,” Smith wrote in the blog post. “It is my job and the job of everyone in this organization to ensure it never happens again anywhere in this Police Department.”
Smith said the department will not release the names of the officers who were disciplined.
Crimes Against Children investigates cases in which children ages 16 or younger are victims of physical or sexual abuse, as well as neglect, endangerment, parental kidnappings and custody violations.
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