Jay-Z’s Team Roc sues Kansas City, Kansas, for records related to alleged police misconduct

Jay Z’s Team Roc, the social justice arm of his Roc Nation entertainment company, filed a lawsuit Tuesday claiming Kansas City, Kansas, has violated public records laws by failing to “timely produce” law enforcement records related to decadeslong allegations of police abuse and misconduct.

The suit, filed in Wyandotte County District Court in partnership with the Midwest Innocence Project, says the Kansas City Police Department has not released substantial documents related to complaints pertaining to current and former detectives and officers after Roc Nation submitted a records request in November 2023.

“For decades, communities in Kansas City, Kansas — particularly minority and immigrant communities — have been subjected to an alarming pattern of abuse and other serious misconduct by the KCKPD,” according to the suit, which was first obtained by NBC News.

“Rather than promoting a culture of transparency and accountability, the KCKPD has a long history of turning a blind eye to (at best) and even covering up (if not worse) abusive and/or corrupt conduct by its officers,” the suit adds.

The complaint against the Kansas City Police Department and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, alleges they have “stonewalled” the plaintiffs for almost a year. As part of its request under the Kansas Open Records Act, the plaintiffs said they were initially charged $2,200 in fees, which they agreed to pay.

But to date, according to the plaintiffs, the 225 documents provided are mostly personnel locator records showing officer shifts and assignments and a smaller handful consisting of training materials and department policies. There has not been one document related to “any complaint or investigation into even a single instance of misconduct by any member of the KCKPD,” as requested, the suit says.

The city’s police force has come under scrutiny over allegations of corruption and civil rights violations in recent years. Activists have called for a broader federal investigation, particularly in light of the alleged abuses under former Kansas City police Det. Roger Golubski, who in September 2022 was charged with federal civil rights crimes after he was accused of exploiting Black women for sex and framing people for crimes they say they did not commit.

In an interview with NBC News, Team Roc’s managing director, Dania Diaz, said they only received personnel documents related to three out of 16 requests and some requests have not been sufficiently answered in a reasonable amount of time under the law.

She said they believe litigation is warranted to compel action and to ultimately bring accountability to a department where officers’ actions have come under scrutiny: “This filing is because human beings with badges have betrayed the public’s trust … That type of behavior must be held to a standard.”

Kansas City police didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit, and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, declined to comment on pending litigation.

The state’s public records law does maintain that certain documents are exempt from public review, including personnel information of public employees and criminal investigation records.

But the plaintiffs contend that the unified government denied its request in “broad, undifferentiated strokes,” and “failed to distinguish between records relating to pending and closed investigations and failed to acknowledge that virtually all legitimate privacy concerns could be resolved through redactions.”

They add that the significant sum paid to the government, in what they were told would be an “extensive” and “voluminous” request, was met with boilerplate language they believe does not comply with the law.

“More important, the Unified Government’s blanket assertion about ‘unfounded allegations’ is insufficient and reveals the heart of the problem when the public trust in law enforcement is broken,” the suit says.

The plaintiffs are seeking a judge to intervene and order the records to be produced within 30 days.

Max Kautsch, a First Amendment rights lawyer in Lawrence, Kansas, said the state’s open records law turns on whether disclosure of a document is in the public interest. There’s a legitimate argument to be made that records related to police misconduct can “shed light” on how the public is being served, he added.

Although Kansas’ law is “liberally construed to promote openness when there’s ambiguity” over whether a record is public, law enforcement records related to criminal complaints are routinely denied, Kautsch said.

Team Roc’s interest in Kansas City transpired after learning from local media in 2021 that the FBI had found numerous allegations of civil rights violations of officer misconduct and excessive force dating back to the 1990s.

In 2022, Team Roc sued the department and took out a full-page ad in The Washington Post calling for an investigation. Team Roc attorney Alex Spiro wrote to the Justice Department that a “blue wall of silence” had allowed alleged misconduct to fester over decades.

Following Golubski’s arrest, Team Roc and other organizations rallied to get the Justice Department to launch a police “pattern and practice” investigation in Kansas City, Kansas, where about half the population is Black and Latino. That has not happened, although an investigation was opened in neighboring Kansas City, Missouri, regarding alleged discrimination within its police force of Black officers.

That investigation has had little traction, according to the Kansas City Star, dimming hopes among some police reform advocates and community groups that the Justice Department under a Trump administration would review police in Kansas City, Kansas, as well. Under the first Trump administration, the department all but abandoned broad civil rights investigations into police forces.

Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his potential plans for the Justice Department’s police investigations.

Meanwhile, attention on Kansas City, Kansas, police is expected to return next month, when Golubski’s trial is scheduled to begin. Golubski, who retired in 2010 after 35 years on the force, pleaded not guilty to six counts of deprivation of civil rights.

Kansas City police didn’t immediately respond to a request about community concerns. The Justice Department declined to comment.

Kansas City Police Chief Karl Oakman has previously said he would comply with any investigation, but Diaz contends there hasn’t been any willingness on the department’s part to be more transparent.

“We strongly believe that everyone wants to live in a society where they feel safe,” she said. “We are open to speaking to anyone who cares, and if this is not resolved before [Trump] takes office, we will work with the new administration to hopefully get a resolution that’s decades long awaited.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

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