The Kent Black Action Commission (KBAC) will host a community meeting with Mayor Dana Ralph and Police Chief Rafael Padilla to discuss public safety and the hiring practices of potential officers.

The meeting is from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 12 in the Green River Room at Kent Commons, 525 Fourth Ave. N.

Gwen Allen-Carston, KBAC executive director, organized the meeting in response to the Kent Police Department’s hiring last September of Conner Thompson, a former officer with the Olathe (Kansas) Police Department where he fatally shot a man in 2022 inside the man’s home.

The city of Olathe just last month paid a $625,000 to the family of the man to settle a wrongful death civil lawsuit filed against Thompson and the city.

Padilla said in previous Kent Reporter stories about the hiring

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