KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department held a press conference Wednesday to discuss new partnerships in hopes of helping the city reduce violent crime.
KCPD Chief Stacey Graves announced partnerships with organizations such as Partners for Peace, AdHoc Group Against Crime, Mothers in Charge and KC Common Good to assist in the effort.
Initially, KCPD and its partners focused on reducing violence near 35th Street and Prospect Avenue after seven people were shot in the span of two days in the area.
However, this new initiative has been in the works behind the scenes for a while.
“This is just a culmination of the last several months of us planning, working together and figuring out what exactly the best strategy is to reduce violent crime in Kansas City,” Graves said.
Graves addressed the skepticism regarding the initiative due to the high number of homicides so far this year. There have been 59 homicides in 2023, which is a similar pace to the past three years — the deadliest in city history.
"This is our gesture (from) all of us standing up here to say we are committed to reducing violent crime in this city,” Graves said.
KCPD launched a similar initiative, The Kansas City No Violence Alliance (KC NoVA), in 2013. But despite recording its lowest homicide count in more than 40 years the following year, numbers went back up and averaged almost 133 homicides for the next four years.
The amount of violence led former KCPD Chief Rick Smith to announce a new enforcement strategy to replace KC NoVA midway through 2019.
Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney Jean Peters Baker would reflect on that initiative, calling it a “great success” that they had a “hard time” sustaining.
She thinks the one lesson she learned from then to now is how much of a resource the community is.
KCPD and partners have been out in the community this week, educating residents on how to report criminal activity and issues affecting their quality of life. KCPD has also been following up on active warrants and communicating with residents in areas where violent crime is prevalent, as well as conducting traffic enforcement in areas where serious and fatal injury accidents are common.
Graves called on the police department’s Community Engagement Division (CED) to supplement this initiative by providing residents with resources and referrals to services.
City Manager Brian Platt listed how the city plans to improve its quality of life, such as replacing 90,000 street lights with LEDs and planting 10,000 trees in the next three years.
The initiative also focuses on the use of illegal guns in the city. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Agents worked collaboratively with local, state and federal law enforcement partners to investigate violations of federal firearms laws and remove illegal firearms from areas in the city impacted by gun violence. The collaborators also aim to educate community members on machine gun conversion devices, personally made firearms, and how to quickly and anonymously report suspected gun crimes.
KCPD will discuss forming an illegal gun squad to reduce the use of those weapons next week.
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