Keep Kearney Safe
Vote YES on Proposition P —
Tuesday, November 3, 2026
Every single vote counts.
We can't out-recruit our neighbors
Kearney has great police officers — but nearby cities, including Smithville, can now pay significantly more.
$55,736
Kearney Police Department
$63,935
Smithville, Liberty, Excelsior Springs, Gladstone
Kearney starts new officers about 14.7% below the regional average.
Tap a city to see its status
Eight of our neighbors already fund their police with a dedicated sales tax. Tap a marker on the map — the gold star is Kearney.
It's not just Clay County. Lee's Summit, Blue Springs, Independence, Grandview, Raytown, Greenwood, Belton, Raymore, Peculiar, and Harrisonville have all passed a similar public safety sales tax.
Over the last 3 years, 12 of Kearney PD's 24 positions have turned over — including at least 7 officers who left specifically for higher pay at nearby departments (North Kansas City, Gladstone, Raytown, Livingston County, Clay County Sheriff's Office) or a Lawson PD lieutenant opening. Every one of those departures means retraining and re-equipping a replacement from scratch — the same cost shown in the calculator above.
Taxpayers are losing the officers they've invested in hiring and training.
Where the Money Goes
Officer Retention & Recruiting
Market-based pay adjustment to bring Kearney's starting pay in line with comparable departments.
New Officer Staffing
Funds 1–2 new officer positions, including salary, benefits, vehicle, and equipment.
Officer Safety Equipment & Training
Heavy outer vests, active threat training, simulator training equipment, and portable fingerprint scanners.
What It Costs
This is a half-cent sales tax — not a property tax.
This is a sales tax, not a property tax, and everyone who shops in Kearney helps fund it, not just residents.
$.05
on a $10 meal
$1
on a $200 grocery run
$.03
on a $6 coffee
Visitors, commuters, and I-35 travelers pay it too — not just Kearney residents.
It does NOT apply to gas, prescriptions, or residential utilities.
The tax sunsets after 25 years — it is not permanent.
What It Takes to Put One Officer on the Street
Tap each marker to see what it costs to fully equip a single new Kearney officer and their patrol vehicle before they ever hit the street.
$0
of $122,412 — 0 of 21 items revealed
Tap a marker on the officer or the patrol vehicle to see what it costs.
Portable radios alone cost $8,000 — more than half the officer gear cost.
The base vehicle is only about two-thirds of the cost of putting one patrol car on the road.
Where these figures come from
Officer gear costs are sourced from official Kearney Police Department materials. The base vehicle figure comes from the City of Kearney's FY2027 Proposed Budget and is pending confirmation with the Kearney Police Department on whether it funds exactly one vehicle. All other vehicle figures are sourced directly from the same FY2027 budget document.
- Ballistic vests$19,800
- Tasers$110,000
- Body worn cameras$12,000
- Night vision goggles$10,000
- 40mm beanbag launchers$7,300
These are department-wide capital totals from the FY2027 budget — not per-vehicle or per-officer costs — so they are not included in the running total.
Kearney's Ranking Is Climbing — Let's Keep It That Way
3 years ago
35th
Today
10th
Missouri cities over 10,000 population, ranked by SpotCrime safety score. spotcrime.io/crime-grade/safest-cities/missouri
Starting Police Officer Pay
Kearney's starting pay trails most of its neighbors — this is the gap Proposition P closes.
This progress came from strong policing and community involvement — Prop P is how we protect it, not lose it to the departments hiring our officers away.
Why We Need More Officers, Not Just Better Pay
Kearney runs patrol in small squads — often just 4 officers per shift. There's no bench. When 2 officers are out at once, the department isn't calling in a spare; it's asking officers who are already off that day to come back in, or stretching a shift into overtime just to keep minimum coverage on the street.
The national average has historically hovered around 2.4 sworn officers per 1,000 residents. Smaller towns — those under 10,000 — often run closer to 3.5 per 1,000, because a small department has less flexibility to absorb call-offs, vacations, and training days. Kearney has grown past 12,000 residents. Even hitting the national average requires real growth in the department; reaching the level comparable towns maintain requires more.
And overtime isn't the cheap option. Paying an existing officer time-and-a-half to cover a shift often costs more per hour than what a newly sworn officer would cost on a regular shift — before counting what it costs to get an officer on the road in the first place: the vehicle, the academy training, the gear. All of that investment is exactly what makes it so painful when a trained officer leaves for a nearby department paying a little more to do the same job.
National research links extended overtime and irregular shift schedules to officer fatigue, health risks, and increased safety incidents on the job. Adding officers reduces the overtime hours current staff are forced to work. Source: National Policing Institute
About the Department
Kearney Police Department is currently budgeted for 23 full-time sworn officers: 1 Chief, 3 Captains, 1 Detective Sergeant, 1 Detective Corporal, 4 Road Sergeants, 4 Road Corporals, and 8 Police Officers — plus 1 School Resource Officer, 2 part-time officers, 1 full-time clerical position, and 1 part-time civilian evidence technician (27 total employees). The department is currently 3 officers short of its budgeted strength.
What happens when officers call off
A typical Kearney patrol squad is small. Set the squad size and how many officers are out today.
2 officers left on shift — covering 2 absences likely means calling someone in on overtime.
Officers per 1,000 residents
Set Kearney's population and current sworn officer count to compare against national and small-town benchmarks.
To simply reach the national average, Kearney needs 7 more officers. To reach the small-town benchmark, it needs 20 more.
How to use this: every slider above is adjustable so you can plug in Kearney's real numbers. Defaults reflect figures already in campaign materials ($55,736 starting salary, a 2.4-per-1,000 national average and a ~3.5-per-1,000 benchmark common in towns under 10,000 residents).
Frequently Asked Questions
Get Involved
Follow Keep Kearney Safe for updates, events, and Coffee with the Chief announcements. Request a yard sign, flyers, or both — and we'll drop them off at the address you provide.
Facebook proppkearney@gmail.comHelp spread the word before November 3rd.