KC police losing grant, disbanding sex crime cold case unit

KANSAS CITY, Missouri - The Kansas City police sex crimes cold case unit is on the verge of disbanding. Some worry about the potential impact on rape and sexual assault victims.

“I know how devastating this crime can be and how it can destroy people’s lives,” said Palle Rilinger, CEO of the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault (MOCSA).

Rilinger knows victims through her work with MOCSA. Each day, women and children file into the group’s crisis center. One of them is an artist. Her work hangs above Rilinger’s desk. It’s painting with a heartfelt poem.

“I hate the violence of rape and the quiet and normalcy of life afterwards,” wrote the victim. “It’s as if, once the superficial wounds are healed, everything’s supposed to go back to being the way it was. It can’t.”

Imagine how she feels now with police preparing to absorb a painful blow.

“I don’t think we will continue to have a sex crimes cold case squad,” said Kevin Masters, Deputy Chief for Kansas City police.

Masters said a $400,000 federal grant expires next month. It paid three detectives to work sex crime cold cases on a full-time basis. However, without funding, their unit will disband on March 1.

“The fact that there isn’t a cold case unit mean there may be more victims and that is troubling,” Rilinger said.

To make her point, Rilinger points out Bernard Jackson. Last year, a rapist attacked five women in Waldo, causing five months of panic. Police named Jackson a person of interest. Prosecutors have not yet charged anyone with those crimes.

However, last May, reports of serial rape in Waldo ceased. At the same time, Jackson went to jail for a series of rapes in the 1980’s. Kansas City sex crimes cold case detectives provided evidence.

“The work they do is still a priority of the department,” Masters said. “The work they do will continue to be done. We just have to look at how we re-tool that element so that we can still carry it on minus funding.”