A day after a city task force made recommendations on how to make Kansas City safer, business owners and people in areas where crime regularly happens said the recommendations don’t go far enough.
Along areas of Independence Ave. in the Old Northeast neighborhood, where almost every business has metal bars on its windows and where private security guards serve as the main source of law enforcement, customers inside a local laundromat weren’t even aware of the recommendations.
“There’s no one here to do anything,” explained 21-year-old Justice Francis, who works at the laundromat. “There are prostitutes, there are guy picking up the prostitutes, all day in the morning and night.”
Francis said she does not feel safe when she is at work or walking back to her home about a block away.
She described moments she frequently experiences; from seeing drug deals across the street to being followed by strangers.
Francis said having more streetlights and police officers in the area would make her feel safer.
However, the recommendations made by the city task force seem far away and can’t come soon enough.
“Hearing it doesn't make me feel any safer,” she said. “We need help now, like today.”
For others, the task force recommendations provide a good start but more must be done.
Former gang leader Ossco Bolton, who now mentors children and teens close to violence, said real solutions would involve going out to communities and talking with the people who have committed or may commit violence.
“There are a lot of violent experts in the city. They’re in the streets,” he explained. “You go and you speak directly to those folks and ask them, ‘Why are doing this? Why do you feel like you need a gun?"
Bolton described how reaching out to those involved in violence could provide vital clues in the fight to stop neighborhood crimes.
“These are the people that are going to stop the violence,” he said. “It's not going to be the people with the PhDs."
The anti-crime task force, which was formed last November, made a total of nine recommendations after conducting meetings and discussions for the past year.
The recommendations to prevent violence and make Kansas City safer include:
- Create a full-time staff position to coordinate the city’s violence prevention efforts
- Establish community resource centers
- Facilitate coalition building and leadership training for existing anti-violence programs and neighborhood leaders
- Create an electronic database of all community resources and agencies
- Develop and implement the Comprehensive Youth Master Plan
- Create a public service campaign
- Create a homicide review board
- Work with the Health Department to secure a CDC study of gun violence in Kansas City
- Consider endorsement of state legislative change to bring state law in line with federal law regarding orders of protection and firearms
The task force will finalize the suggestions by early November before presenting them later on to City Council.
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Tom Dempsey can be reached at Tom.Dempsey@KSHB.com.
