U.S. Marshal Ronald Miller had three reasons for being at Bishop Ward’s Dorney Field on Saturday morning for the Police Athletic League football camp. First, as a federal marshal, he has a professional interest in lowering crime. Fostering connections between youth and police is a way to keep kids out of trouble.
“ When you have the police interacting with the community, and the officers in the community groups, and the officers out here with the kids,” said the veteran lawman, “it builds those positive relationships with the police department and the community. That’s a good thing, and that improves the morale of the city and improves the safety of the city.”
Second, as a longtime KCK resident — he graduated from Washington and was on the KCKPD for 34 years, from patrolman to chief — he had a personal interest in catching up with old friends and co-workers like current chief Karl Oakman. As a current KCK resident, he’s got a personal stake in a lower crime rate too.
Third, as a grandfather to two young KCK football players, he had a family interest in his grandsons getting to meet current and former Chiefs players, get some offseason skills coaching, and have some fun outside on a warmish Saturday morning.
Miller has been marshal for the federal judicial district of Kansas since 2015. He and the deputies and officers he oversees protect Kansas’s federal courthouses and judges, and they work with local agencies to find and arrest fugitives, which also has a direct impact on crime in KCK.
“It’s not magic: take the predators off the street, and crime goes down,” said Miller. “We work closely with the KCKPD. They have officers on our task force. We chase these fugitives. We work sex offenders, we work on recovered assets, and we work critically missing children cases. We do all that collaboratively with the police department and the sheriff’s office in Wyandotte County.”
2025 was the fourth year for the the camp, which is sponsored by Chief Oakman and put on by the Police Athletic League, a community youth organization sponsored and staffed by the KCKPD.
PAL offers a wide range of programs for youth with varied interests, from boxing to gardening. PAL program director P.J. Locke has been seeing great involvement in the group’s programming, with an average of one hundred kids a night participating.
With summer in full swing, the PAL gardens are ready to burst with produce, including a vineyard with table grapes. The drivers’ education program, started last year, has produced two hundred licensed drivers, several of whom volunteered to help run the football camp.
The football camp is just one of the community events that the police department has going on this summer.
Chief Oakman also promoted two youth police academies that the department offers free for youth ages 12 to 15. The attendees will learn police basics, visit local businesses to understand the community role of police, and expand their conflict resolution skills beyond the basics taught at the football camp.
Oakman tied it all back to equipping youth to make good decisions without violence. “That anger management, those life skills, those are critically important,” said the chief. “ Whenever you see something major happen where there’s violence, it always has something to do with young people’s inability to manage their anger.”
The department will also get students ready to go back to school with the annual backpack and school supply giveaway in early August. The chief plans to continue the football camp every year in the second Saturday of June.
