KCPD Chief Reports Recruitment Probs Persist Despite Prez Biden 'Defund Police' Rebuke

This week the Commander-In-Chief moved away from radical anti-police policy and offered his support for law enforcement.

Meanwhile . . .

Local law enforcement still struggles to bulk up their numbers. 

Check the top cop weighing in on progress or lack thereof . . .

In his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Biden denounced the “defund the police” slogan that has become popular with progressive members of the Democratic Party, instead calling for more funding.

“The answer is to fund the police with the resources and training they need to protect our communities,” Biden said in a moment that drew bipartisan applause.

Kansas City Police Chief Richard Smith agrees with that sentiment. A KCPD veteran with more than 34 years of experience, Smith says the state of policing has changed and officers will need more training to deal with the challenges of the future.

That’s assuming police agencies have new recruits to train, something Smith and others are not taking for granted as departments across the country struggle to fill open positions.

“When I took the test back 34 years (ago), I think there were 400 of us in the academy class. We gave a test a while back and there were four,” Smith said.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Police chief: Pressure, conflict, scrutiny make recruiting cops tough

KANSAS CITY, MO. ( NewsNation Now) From 2019 to 2020 the murder rate in the United States rose 30 percent, the largest single-year increase in over a century. Overall, violent crimes in 2020 went up by 5% over the previous year.