The Kent income tax increase for a new Kent City Police Department failed Tuesday night. While the race was close, 5,163 people voted against it and 4,240 people voted for it. The .25 percent tax increase would have raised taxes an estimated $1.3 million per year. The money would be used for the design construction and maintenance of the new police building. The current police department was built in 1924 and is potentially unsafe.

After the Kent income tax increase failed, TV2 Reporter Hallie Schmidt called the police department and several other city officials for an interview. Not a single person returned her calls. Schmidt then went to the businesses that would have been demolished in order to build the new police department, yet none of the workers would talk to her either. TV2 Reporter Hallie Schmidt kept her camera rolling the entire time.

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Contact Hallie Schmidt at [email protected].