KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Health Department hopes it can come up with solutions to the increasing violence in the city through a survey.
The survey will gauge neighbors’ concerns when it comes to violence, such as what they think contributes the most to violence and what would help it decrease.
“I’m glad to see it,” Alan Young with the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council said as he sat down to look at the survey.
Young said he’d never heard of it, and neither did other neighborhood association leaders 41 Action News called.
The city said it’s a new survey and they are distributing it online and at community events.
Young filled the survey out, and all his responses suggested a need for better job opportunities and community support.
“This last question, to me, really goes to the heart of our success and our struggle,” Young said.
The question asks what you would do to make the community safer if you were a politician.
Young’s response was “community policing,” which is a hot topic in Kansas City.
“I would surmise that you would probably see pretty much the same results on the survey globally,” Young said. “It’s not rocket science.”
The Kansas City, Kansas Police Department did something similar last spring, going door to door with a violence survey. They took the results and concentrated their police presence in violence hot spots. In six months, they say they’ve seen crime decrease.
Rashid Junaid with Aim4Peace, an anti-violence group through the health department, said they’ve never done a survey before. Part of the city’s master plan was to get feedback from residents.
“This is going to help inform that process. We’re working with the Prevention Institute to help us and develop a strong master plan,” Junaid said.
Junaid said the survey will determine what comes next.
“My hope is, of course, that the data will be collected and then out of that will come an action plan,” Young said.
The city will circulate the survey for 60 days.
