KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An organization devoted to social causes took out a full-page ad in Tuesday’s Washington Post calling for the United States Department of Justice to investigate the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department.
The ad, paid for by Team Roc, a division of Jay-Z's Roc Nation entertainment company, called on Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta to investigate the department on allegations of rape, murder, sex trafficking and corruption.
Last month, the organization filed a civil lawsuit in Wyandotte County, Kansas, District Court seeking the release of several records relating to the police department’s investigations.
The ad is co-signed by Kansas City, Missouri-based Midwest Innocence Project.
In the letter to Gupta, the organization urges the U.S. Attorney’s office to take action.
“The police and eyewitness reports of criminal behavior perpetrated by members of the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department, over the past several decades, are staggering,” the group said. “They detail graphic accounts of rape, murder, sex trafficking and corruption so rampant and so blatant, it would be shocking if even a single allegation were true.”
At the time of the civil lawsuit filing last month, KCKPD cited Kansas Open Records laws as reasons why they didn’t turn over results of some investigations to Roc Nation.
At the time, a spokesperson from the Unified Government said, “they would follow-up by filing a response.”
KSHB 41 News has reached out to the Unified Government for a copy of that filing and will update this story when it is received.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
