INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — The Independence Police Department and the Independence City Council were forced to scramble when the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department announced raises for its officers earlier this year.
Now, voters will get a chance to weigh in on whether Independence follows suit.
“We need to, first and foremost, retain the talented officers that we have here currently, and then be able to stay competitive in attracting and recruiting additional officers to come and serve this great community,” Independence Police Chief Adam Dustman said.
The Independence Police Department, which is the second-largest in the Kansas City area with 230 officers, already is short 34 sworn officers and city officials feared that KCPD’s salary increase would siphon away even more.
“We were already faced with a situation where we were 34 officers short, so it felt, at the time, like we had to act quickly — and that’s what we did,” Independence City Councilwoman Heather Wiley said.
The City Council voted unanimously in May to put Proposition PD, which would impose a citywide 1/4-cent sales tax indefinitely, on the ballot.
Starting salaries for Independence police officers would jump from $43,000 to $62,000 a year, if the proposal passes.
“Our police do so much for all the people in this town, and they deserve more than what they’re getting,” Susan West, a lifelong Independence resident, said.
City officials understand the challenge of asking people who make far less than $62,000 a year to dig into their own pockets for a new tax.
“I know firsthand what it’s like to worry about money and to battle to make ends meet,” Wiley said. “What we know is that crime disproportionately affects people who live in poverty, so this is an issue that we know we had to work on for everyone in Independence.”
Dustman hopes Independence will support his department.
“We have a long history of a supportive community,” he said. “They support us, and we feel that each and every day.”
The alternative, he said, is that IPD will have to explore changing the calls it goes out on and scaling back special investigative units.
Wiley considers funding pay raises to maintain the police department is a foundational issue for the city.
“If it doesn’t pass, we’ll go back to the drawing board,” she said.
Voters will head to the polls Aug. 6 to decide the issue, though early voting already is underway. The sales tax would go into effect Oct. 1, 2024, if passed by voters.
Independence’s current base sales-tax rate (2.625%) would jump to 2.875%, adding one penny in taxes for every $4 spent in the city.
The city sales-tax rate is higher in areas subject to Transportation Development or Community Improvement districts, which overlay additional taxes.
Missouri imposes a statewide 4.225% sales tax and Jackson County’s sales-tax rate is 1.375%. There’s also a 0.125% countywide sales tax that benefits the Kansas City Zoo.
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