DOJ launches civil rights investigation into Kansas Metropolis’s public contracting practices | FOX four Kansas Metropolis WDAF-TV

KANSAS CITY, MO. – The Department of Justice has launched a civil rights investigation into how Kansas City is handling public procurement.

In a press release late Wednesday, the department said the investigation concerns whether public procurement and procurement practices in the city violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The DOJ claims that publicly available information shows that the city has been using quota-based “closures” in nearly 30% of all government contract dollars for at least 24 years to favor certain people based on their gender and race and disadvantage others.

The DOJ did not identify any specific incident or program in the press release, nor did the press release indicate which groups of people were the alleged targets of discrimination. FOX4 contacted the department for clarification.

“All governments in this free country must treat all people with equal dignity and respect and without dividing people into racial and ethnic blocks in order to mark certain people as winners and others as losers because of their race. The Department of Justice today opened an investigation to determine whether Kansas City, Missouri’s treaty program, complies with the United States Constitution and the Civil Rights Act, ”Eric Dreiband, assistant attorney general for civil rights, said in a statement.

A spokesman for Mayor Quinton Lucas’ office said he was aware of the investigation and would make a statement shortly.

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