New numbers released at the Kansas City Police Board meeting Tuesday raise public safety concerns.
Those numbers show homicides are on pace to pass last year's 10-year high, and the number of police officers on the street has dropped below last year's 10-year low.
"I do believe we need more officers on the street, there's no question about it," Police Board of Commissioners Chair Leland Shurin said.
After going through reams of KCPD documents, 41 Action News reported in March the department was at its lowest staffing level in a decade with 1,313 officers at the end of 2016.
Through the first quarter of this year, that number has dropped to 1,294 officers.
"Every year that I've been in office, there's been a higher budget for the police department," Kansas City Mayor Sly James said.
When the 41 Action News Investigators asked James why the budget has consistently gone up and the number of officers on the street is going down, he replied, "Well there might be a lot of reasons for that."
The city is also on pace to break last year's 10-year high of 128 homicides.
There have been 38 so far this year compared to 30 at the same time last year.
The numbers were announced at the last police board meeting before Chief Darryl Forte retires on May 20. Forte did not attend the meeting.
"It's okay, we get the information we need, it doesn't matter who presents it," said Shurin.
"I wouldn't say I was disappointed, I didn't really expect him to be honest with you," said James.
James praised Forte for his outreach and visibility in the community and for fostering better internal communications in the police department.
Shurin praised Forte for making needed changes to the department.
"And we greatly appreciate his 32 years of service on the force to the city," said John Sharp of the South Kansas City Alliance at the board meeting.
Sharp's group plans to present Forte with the Alvin Brooks Lifetime Achievement Award at a breakfast May 30.
But Forte doesn't plan to attend that meeting either.
When the 41 Action News Investigators asked Forte on Twitter why he didn't attend Tuesday's board meeting or plans to attend the awards breakfast, he responded but didn’t answer our question.
James said he wants to cast a wide net to search for a new chief and look at all applicants from both inside and outside the department.
He's also looking for an innovator to be the next chief.
"If somebody's going to come in and sit around and do the same old, same old and nothing is going to change, probably not going to be the highest on my list," James said.
"I have no preference whatsoever, I just want the best person we can find," Shurin said.
A study of the police department staffing is due to be released in mid to late May, about the same time Forte is scheduled to retire.
