Kansas City’s March Toward Private Security – and the Ironic Logic of Defunding Police

  By Josiah Ranen

Kansas City today. Mayor Quinton Lucas—“Mayor Q-Ball”—is now proposing that parking lot owners be required to carry $1 million in insurance, keep their lots spotless, endure yearly inspections, and provide fences, security lighting, and surveillance cameras. In other words, turn parking lot operators into mini-police departments at their own expense

There is an ever-increasing trend in Kansas City—and across the nation—toward reliance on private security. It’s no coincidence. This trend is the direct result of the “defund the police” movement, which has left citizens and businesses with spotty, delayed, or nonexistent law enforcement response.

As a private security guard myself, I’ll admit I stand to benefit when police departments are underfunded and stretched too thin. More crime and slower response times mean more business for private firms like mine. But let’s be honest: public security has always been understood as one of the few areas that libertarians, conservatives, and  capitalists agree should be socialized, funded by taxpayers, and provided by public institutions—namely, the police. 

And yet, the so-called progressives—the woke cultural Marxist—insist that public safety is the one area that ought to be privatized.  They claim to be against privatization in nearly every other sphere of life, from healthcare to education. But when it comes to police protection, they’re more than happy to outsource it, pushing citizens and small businesses toward hiring private guards, installing costly cameras, and paying for fencing and lighting that not everyone can afford. Ironic dont you think?

From their point of view, however, it fulfills a perverse logic:

First, weaken or dismantle the police.

Second, force private security costs onto those least able to bear them, namely small businesses and lower-income neighborhoods.

Third, let the resulting chaos fuel the argument for a radical restructuring of society under their so-called socialist revolution.

History teaches us where this leads. Just like today, When the young  Romans grew tired of serving in the armed forces and city guards known as  Vigiles, The Roman emperors farmed out the security duties of their armies and Rome's Praetorian Guards to  foreign “barbarian contractors". It worked for a while—until it didn’t. When things got too bad, the Barbarians simply took over, deposing the last Roman emperor in 476 AD. The empire collapsed not with a bang, but with a quiet abdication of responsibility. Rome outsourced itself into oblivion.

But here’s the question: what about gas stations in the city’s most violent neighborhoods? Anyone who lives in Kansas City knows the reality—gas stations, not parking lots, are the epicenters of shootings, carjackings, and armed robberies. Yet they get a pass from City Hall. Why is the mayor hammering parking lot owners with costly mandates while ignoring the very businesses where violence is most concentrated?

The answer isn’t about public safety at all. It’s about optics, power, and control. Parking lots are easy to regulate. Owners can be bullied into compliance or forced to shut down. Meanwhile, the areas where violence truly thrives remain untouched, because addressing them would mean confronting uncomfortable political truths.

Kansas City doesn’t need more private mandates. It doesn’t need a patchwork of fences, cameras, and guards replacing the very institution designed to provide equal protection under the law. It needs a fully funded, fully supported police department capable of enforcing order across the city—not just where it’s politically convenient.

And that’s where citizens must step in. Voters in this city can no longer afford to shrug their shoulders while City Hall chips away at public safety. If Mayor Lucas and the Council are more interested in regulating parking lots than tackling gas station violence, then it’s time to hold them accountable—at the ballot box, in public hearings, and in every neighborhood meeting.

Kansas City’s future depends on restoring real public security, not outsourcing it to whoever can afford a fence and a camera. Rome fell when its leaders abandoned their duty. We don’t have to repeat that mistake—if we stand up now and demand better.

If we continue down this path, we may find ourselves repeating Rome’s mistake: outsourcing our security until the day comes when the contractors—or the chaos—take over completely.