With nearly 20 more homicides in 2015 than the year before, Kansas City Mayor Sly James appointed a new anti-violence task force. Its mission is to make recommendations to the city and potentially state lawmakers of ways to reduce the violence in the metro.
The 18-member committee led by Councilwoman Jolie Justus met Tuesday night for the first time.
"We're going to spend the full two hours tonight actually asking our task force members what it is they want to get out of the next few months so that we can then put together our programming for our next hearings coming up," said Justus.
Those hearings may last until November. That is the expected time frame for the recommendations which will give the committee ample time ahead of the next legislative session if changes to state law are proposed.
"Frankly if we see a recommendation sometime in April or May and it looks good and we can implement it, we are going to come back to the city and say we need to do this now," said Justus.
What the committee is looking at
No subject will be off the table, says Justus, who characterized the committee's approach as holistic.
"We will be looking at the issue of gun violence but that is one of only many factors. We are going to be looking at socio-economic and education opportunities and how that affects violence in our community. We'll be looking specifically at domestic violence and violence against children," said Justus.
How immediate and tangible results will be
Justus says there is no way of knowing in the short term how much effect any changes will have because the violence is cyclical.
"We see years that we start out like this year where we have several homicides right at the beginning of the year. We have other years where we'll have one day several homicides and then two or three months with hardly any at all," said Justus.
Justus says any conversation on ways to reduce violence is worthwhile, and the ongoing one this task force will have, she believes, will lead to great results.
"If we can reduce violence either short term or long term by even one homicide, five,10,15 ... I think that it is worth the effort."
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Brian Abel can be reached at brian.abel@kshb.com.
