QuickTake:

The two-year review follows allegations of noncompliance with a court settlement in the case of an officer fatally shooing Stacy Kenny in 2019. Recommendations and two reports from the review will be published online.

A consulting firm hired by the city of Springfield will review how the city’s police use force on citizens after allegations the department failed to comply with terms of a 2020 legal settlement.

In 2020, the city and the family of Stacy Kenny reached a $4.55 million settlement after the 2019 shooting death of Kenny, 33, and a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Kenny family.

The family and city reached a new agreement last month for the firm Polis, based in Dallas, Texas, to begin work this year and present findings to the Springfield City Council midway through a two-year review, said Kevin Yolken, an attorney for the Kenny family, in a news release Wednesday, Nov. 11.

“The department’s agreement to accept critique from outside experts — and to air the results publicly — is an enormous departure from the leadership in place when Stacy Kenny was killed,” Yolken said in a statement.

Kenny had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and her parents had met with police months before her death to alert them to her condition.

The fatal encounter began with Kenny stopping after a police car followed her without lights-and-sirens activated. She drove forward and then stopped twice after the police vehicle had its emergency lights turned on, and multiple officers arrived. An officer used a police car to try to block Kenny’s vehicle, according to a report from a consultant, OIR Group.

The officers broke out vehicle windows and shocked Kenny with a Taser while trying to pull her out of the vehicle. Sgt. Richard “R.A.” Lewis entered the vehicle which began to move forward. Lewis reportedly said he shot Kenny as the vehicle accelerated toward a row of trees, and no criminal charges were filed against Lewis.

Terms of the 2020 settlement agreement included a requirement that police adopt a policy for officers that called for de-escalation when possible and appropriate before using force.

The 2020 settlement agreement called for a new system of review for use-of-force incidents that led to recent concerns about possible noncompliance, according to Yolken.

“It is really important to our family to see that there is a good administrative process in place to review use-of-force incidents, that the process is actually followed, and that it has the ability to hold officers accountable when necessary,” Stacy Kenny’s parents, Barbara and Chris Kenny, said in a statement.

Springfield City Manager Nancy Newton signed the agreement Oct. 15 “without the admittance of fault by any party,” according to the 10-page document shared by Yolken, which includes a scope of work for Polis.

In the first 12 months of the review, Polis will “systematically review” policies, directives and training manuals about use of force, as well as data on the number of use-of-force incidents, according to the agreement released by Yoken.

Polis will also conduct a series of interviews with “senior and mid-level leaders” at the Springfield Police Department, plus host focus groups with patrol officers, sergeants and instructors.

After an initial public presentation, the next 12 months will involve the firm auditing “a random sample” of use-of-force events “to identify training, tactics, equipment, procedures, and other subsequent factors” that might “help reduce the frequency and/or severity of future force events.” The firm will then provide a written audit report with additional recommendations “for optimizing how SPD can strengthen police-community trust, especially with respect to the use of force.”

Both the initial and audit reports are intended to be published on the city of Springfield’s website.

Negotiations

A city spokesperson and Springfield police did not immediately respond to questions emailed Tuesday afternoon. It isn’t clear how much Polis is being paid for the work, but the 10-page agreement states the city “is solely responsible in paying for this consultant.”

At issue in negotiations leading to the new agreement was the 2020 settlement calling for a Force Review Committee to review use-of-force incidents resulting in injury requiring medical treatment.

The news release from Yolken stated that it did not appear the city was meeting that obligation, as the Force Review Committee had met only twice despite “hundreds of intermediate or greater force applications, dozens of which resulted in injuries that required medical treatment by SPD’s own tally.”

Negotiations began in March 2025 between the Kenny family and the city and were aided by U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai, according to the news release.

As part of the new settlement, the Kenny family and city agree “that the 2020 Agreement and this Subsequent Agreement will terminate upon the City’s completion of its contract with the chosen external consultant.”

The last and likely final settlement agreement between the Kenny family and the city “represents an opportunity for SPD to move away from the protect-our-own policing of the past and change its culture around the use of force, but the department must be willing to act, and the community must hold SPD to its commitments,” Yolken said.

As part of the 2020 settlement, the OIR Group, the consultant examining Kenny’s death found, “no evidence that the responding officers considered de-escalation techniques; instead, each responding officer immediately resorted to force.”

Chris and Barbara Kenny, in their statement, said: “In the death of our child, Stacy, there was no administrative process that even asked basic investigative questions regarding the traffic stop or the unmitigated violence leading up to the shooting. The officers involved received no feedback on their actions, let alone being held to account for them. This is an opportunity for SPD to build on the efforts of new leadership to ensure future incidents are thoroughly investigated, and to empower the department to make changes when issues are identified, including through appropriate training and disciplinary action.”

Stacy Kenny’s sister Kim Kenny, in a statement thanked Springfield police “for the hard work done up to this point.”

“I will continue to honor my sibling’s death by advocating for improvements in law enforcement within our community as well as nationally. Great governmental power requires great accountability to the public, and I hope this is a step toward that,” Kim Kenny said.