In 2011, the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department (KCKPD) launched a covert investigation dubbed Operation Sticky Fingers to address a troubling pattern of theft and dishonesty within its ranks. This action came after numerous complaints from community members about the department’s SWAT team, including reports of broken televisions, missing cash, lost electronics, and even a stolen pornographic video. With assistance from the FBI, the department set up a sting operation to identify officers involved in these acts of misconduct.
On January 6 of that year, officers from the department’s Selective Crime Occurrence Reduction Enforcement (SCORE) Unit executed a search warrant at a rented house that had been carefully prepared with thousands of dollars’ worth of electronics, marijuana, and cash. Unbeknownst to the police officers conducting the raid, the house was rigged with concealed cameras hidden inside an alarm clock and a smoke detector, which recorded their every move. The surveillance footage revealed three officers stealing items such as video games, an Apple iPod, headphones, and $640 in cash. Following the sting, all three officers were terminated and faced federal charges, including conspiracy, deprivation of civil rights, and theft of government property.
While these three officers were caught on camera, their statements during the investigation implicated a fourth SCORE officer, Jeff Gardner, who was not captured by the hidden surveillance. Gardner’s reputation among his peers was troubling; investigators learned that he had recently assaulted his girlfriend, causing serious injury requiring medical treatment. Fellow officers also recounted Gardner’s history of destructive and dishonest behavior, including smashing televisions during raids, stealing video games, and even taking a bag of crab legs. One officer recalled Gardner boasting, “You can’t catch me unless you catch me on video.”
Despite these serious accusations, prosecutors chose not to file charges against Gardner due to the lack of direct evidence and the questionable credibility of the officers who implicated him. Nonetheless, a memo sent to then-chief Rick Armstrong from the district attorney’s office warned that Gardner’s involvement in any future police work—whether investigative efforts, arrests, or courtroom testimony—should be met with deep skepticism. The memo concluded that it was highly unlikely that prosecutors would pursue cases relying heavily on Gardner’s testimony.
This cautionary memo led to Gardner being placed on the department’s confidential Veracity Disclosure List, often referred to as the Giglio List. This list takes its name from the 1972 Supreme Court decision Giglio v. United States, which established that prosecutors must disclose any information that could challenge the credibility of their witnesses. For KCKPD, the Giglio List is a roster of officers whose histories of misconduct or dishonesty are so severe that their participation in criminal cases could jeopardize prosecutions. Despite Gardner’s inclusion on this list, he remained employed by the department, a status he retains to this day. Gardner is one of 62 current and former officers on the list, each of whom has engaged in misconduct serious enough to potentially undermine their credibility in court.
Gardner declined to comment on his inclusion on the list.
The existence of KCKPD’s Giglio List, along with detailed records of the misconduct that placed officers on it, came to light due to a major data breach of the department’s files in 2024. The leak, published by the transparency nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDOS), included over one terabyte of documents spanning decades. Among the trove were internal affairs files, operational plans, human resources data, and the long-secret Giglio List itself, revealing a disturbing pattern of tolerated or overlooked misconduct. The records show that officers with serious credibility issues were often allowed to remain on the force, promoted, or transferred to other departments—all without public knowledge.
This data dump was reviewed by KCUR, Kansas City’s public radio station, and WIRED magazine as part of a joint investigation. Corroboration came from interviews with former officials, including the district attorney involved in the 2011 case, confirming the authenticity of the Giglio List. However, the full context behind each officer’s placement on the list was not always clear from the documents alone.
The revelations echo long-standing accusations from Kansas City, Kansas residents alleging corruption and racism within the police department. These concerns gained national attention in 2022 with the arrest of retired detective Roger Golubski, who faced two federal indictments accusing him of sexually assaulting multiple women while on duty and protecting a drug dealer’s sex trafficking operation. Golubski