KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City, Missouri, Fire Department is set to welcome the largest and most-diverse class in its history Saturday during a graduation ceremony.
The 106-cadet spring class of 2023 will graduate Saturday during a ceremony at the Kansas City Convention Center downtown.
It is the largest class in KCFD history, the department said, and 40% of the new cadets are minorities or females.
“The class is the most diverse in the department’s history, an increase of twenty percent over past classes,” KCFD said in a statement.
KCFD has been under fire in recent years for its workplace culture, including a Culture Assessment Report published earlier this year laid bare concerns about inequitable treatment based on race within the department.
The department called it a “momentous occasion not only for the cadets, but for the Kansas City Fire Department as we work to provide a more diverse workforce, which better reflects our great city’s diverse population.”
Mayor Quinton Lucas and City Manager Brian Platt will join KCFD Chief Ross Grundyson to celebrate the graduating class.
The city confirmed in August that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating a possible pattern of race discrimination within KCFD.
A former KCFD battalion chief sued KCFD over its employment practices and received a $250,000 settlement in January 2021.
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