KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office has announced plans to create an independent unit to investigate accusations of excessive police force or misconduct.
District Attorney Mark Dupree made the announcement Wednesday, saying his office plans to add three investigators to look into complaints reported by the public, the Kansas City Star reported. Dupree said he has already requested funding for the additional investigators.
The unit that will house the investigators will be an expansion of the Conviction Integrity Unit, created in 2018. Since then, that unit has reviewed more than 60 cases of inmates claiming to have been wrongfully convicted by the office.
The unit will now be called the Community Integrity Unit, Dupree said.
Dupree said the additional investigators are needed following the police-involved killing on May 25 of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Floyd’s treatment at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers — including one who pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, even as Floyd cried that he couldn’t breathe — ignited a public outcry across the nation for racial justice and end to police brutality.
