KCPD Chief Darryl Forte addressed the board of police commissioners meeting Tuesday in a frank discussion about race and policing through his eyes.
"We've been very fortunate here but we're still one incident away from things going badly for Kansas City," Forte said.
Flanked by the department's top brass, Forte spoke candidly about the city's social climate.
"Racism is real. It's in housing, banking, sports, education, politics - why would anyone think we would take an oath and that would go away with some of us? We have issues and we have to talk about those issues internally," Forte said.
Hear more of what Forte said at the meeting in the video player above.
As he explained, becoming police chief of the city he was born and raised in wasn't easy.
"When I was going through the chief elections process, I had to have my wife and my oldest daughter go to the firing range to learn how to shoot a gun because of some threats," Chief Forte said.
The threats rolled in when he became Kansas City's top cop.
"[There were] nails in my tires at home, had a letter in my mailbox saying, 'Dead man, walking never,'" Forte said.
It's a perspective that many don't get to see.
"There's a lot of things that I deal with as a black chief that other people didn't have to deal with the same things that happen to me here. What are they doing to people out there on one-on-one contacts?" Forte asked.
He told the board not much has changed to increase diversity among the ranks since he joined the force more than 30 years ago.
"I know there's retaliation when you come out and speak like this, but my thing is if I don't say it, who's going to say it?" Forte asked.
Now the chief, like he did at the prayer service at KCPD's East Patrol on Sunday, encourages the public to show up to these meetings to voice their concerns.
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Andres Gutierrez can be reached at andres.gutierrez@kshb.com
