Kansas City police unveil new room for officers to interview sexual assault survivors

When survivors of sexual assault and trauma have visited the Kansas City Police Department in the past, they have recounted their painful experiences to police in a plain, gray room with a whiteboard and hard plastic chairs. The same room was used to question anyone, survivors and suspects.

To help survivors feel more comfortable during police interviews, the department opened a new room Thursday at police headquarters, 1125 Locust St., adorned with plush pink chairs that swivel, a rug patterns and lamps that replace fluorescent lighting on the ceiling.

“Everyone wants to feel safe,” said Tye Grant, president of the Police Foundation of Kansas City, which helped fund the project. “The health of our police department is essential to the health of our community. »

The goal is to help survivors feel like they’re in a living room rather than a police interrogation room, according to Project Beloved: The Molly Jane Mission, a Texas-based nonprofit that partners with law enforcement agencies like KCPD to install the “soft interview rooms.”

Tracy Mathesan and Becky Halterman started the nonprofit organization in 2018, a year after Mathesan’s daughter, Molly Jane Mathesan, was raped and murdered in her Fort Worth, Texas, apartment by Reginald Kimbro, who was also accused of other rapes, but never indicted. Before police had enough evidence to charge Kimbro, he sexually assaulted and killed another woman, Megan Getrum, nine days later.

In 2022, he pleaded guilty to the murders of Mathesan and Getrum and the rape of four other women. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Since then, the sisters have worked to advocate for survivors of sexual assault. Through research into trauma-informed care, they decided to launch their efforts to create informal interview rooms in law enforcement agencies across the country. The association creates around two rooms each month.

Providing a comfortable environment with warm colors can help survivors feel emotionally and physically safe and improve the interview process, said Halterman, vice chair of Project Beloved’s board of directors.

Every element of the room was chosen to help survivors feel more comfortable than in a typical police interrogation room. As they tell their stories, they can swivel chairs to soothe themselves, or grab a weighted blanket or throw to feel more comfortable. The walls are decorated with nature photos taken by Getrum, photographer and artist.

Survivors have contacted Project Beloved since they began creating soft interrogation rooms, saying the decor and design helped them feel more comfortable and that the experience was different than when they expected an interview with police, Halterman said.

Law enforcement officials also told the nonprofit that having a separate space helped them change their approach and mindset when talking to survivors.

The police foundation is in talks with the department to fund a second informal interview room.