KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kirk Thompson, who has served as director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation for the last 11 years, will retire on Jan. 10, 2023.
The KBI made the announcement Thursday, noting that Thompson was the 12th director in the agency’s history.
Thompson's tenure as director was the fourth-longest the KBI's 83-year history.
After three years as a deputy with the Barton County, Kanas, Sheriff’s Office, the 22-year-old started with the KBI as a special agent in 1979 and called his time as director “the highpoint of my career.”
On Thompson’s watch, the KBI established the first satellite Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory in partnership with the FBI and opened the Forensic Science Center at Washburn University, his alma mater.
“I’m very proud of what this agency has accomplished over the past decade to safeguard the public, and pursue justice for victims of violent crimes,” Thompson said in a statement. “While many public safety challenges still face our state, I am absolutely certain the KBI will continue to successfully engage those challenges and strive to make Kansas a better place to live.”
Thompson also created the KBI cyber crime unit; expanded the KBI child victims unit, including the creation of the Northeast Child Victim Task Force; and bolstered the Kansas Sexual Assault Kit initiative by adding additional forensic scientists among other achievements.
“Kirk Thompson has served as an exceptional leader for the KBI,” Attorney General Derek Schmidt said in a statement. “Never drawing attention to himself, he always has insisted on the highest standards of professionalism and has moved the Bureau forward in so many quiet but critical ways. I am tremendously grateful he answered this call to service more than 11 years ago, and wish Kirk and his family well in life's next chapter."
The KBI director is appointed by the Kansas Attorney General, so new AG-elect Kris Kobach will appoint Thompson’s successor, a KBI spokesperson told KSHB 41 News.
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