Lear B. Reed served as chief of the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department from July 11, 1939 to September 30, 1941.

Lear Reed was a lawyer and former agent of the FBI, serving in the FBI's Kansas City division office. He was offered the appointment of Chief of the Kansas City Police Department in a clandestine meeting with the newly created Board of Police Commissioners as the KCPD was brought back under state control in 1939. The Board of Police Commissioners, newly appointed by Governor Lloyd Crow Stark (1937-1941), consisted of prominent attorney Edgar Shook, Russel Greiner, Calvin Coolige, and Milton Schweiger. After consulting with Director Edgar Hoover, Lear ended his fourteen year career with the FBI and began his new mission as Kansas City chief of police to purge the 679 member department of the corruption that became so prevalent under machine control during the 1930's. Chief Reed served a term of just over two years. In his book "Human Wolves" he declares that he aged five years during the first six months of his tenure.

In his memoirs, Chief Reed recounts many offers of lavish bribes in the form of trips, money, and real estate tendered to dissuade him from his mission. In one instance Lear recounts a situation where one "promoter of nefarious operations" sampled his blackjack, losing some teeth and his hat between Lear's desk and the door after "firing the indignation of a country boy raised on honesty."

Under Reed's tenure efforts to modernize the police department included the establishment of a crime laboratory, improved training, and acquisition of modern radio equipment.

Chief Reed published a book about his experiences as chief of police during this turbulent era of the KCPD in a "gang-ridden, vice-controlled city" titled "Human Wolves" in 1941.