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PRESS RELEASE:
An effort led by Kansas City Police put more than 150 law enforcement officers in the most violent areas of the city for three days to attack violent crime.
Running from July 28 to 30, this violent crime initiative followed up and expanded on the success of similar initiatives in the past two years. This year, KCPD and Independence Police officers, as well as agents from seven federal agencies, are targeting five areas of Kansas City and a few addresses in Independence. These areas were selected based on homicides, drive-by shootings, aggravated assaults, police calls for service that are violent in nature, reports of suspected drug activity, intelligence and information from district patrol officers. The target areas comprise 3 percent of Kansas City’s land area but have been responsible for 27 percent of its homicides, 41 percent of its drive-by shootings and 30 percent of its aggravated assaults from January to June 2010.
The preliminary results of the initiative are:
• 120 warrants cleared
• 74 arrests, 20 new arrests/charges
• 17 search warrants served
• $48,706 in U.S. currency recovered
• 76 grams of cocaine recovered
• 32,135 grams of marijuana recovered
• 33 grams of methamphetamine recovered
• 56 grams of heroin recovered
• 7,257 grams of PCP recovered
• 15 handguns (3 reported stolen), 4 shotguns, 4 rifles
This initiative will be conducted in two parts. The first part took place Wednesday and Thursday, July 28 and 29, and involved officers serving search warrants and conducting knock-and-talks within the target areas. The second phase will take place tomorrow, July 30, and involve 150-plus officers going door-to-door in many neighborhoods to gather more information about five unsolved homicide cases.
Federal agencies that participated in the operation include: the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Immigration and Customs Enforcement; U.S. Marshals Service; United States Postal Inspection Service; IRS Criminal Division and the Drug Enforcement Agency. The Jackson County Prosecutor’s and U.S. Attorney’s offices also assisted in the operation.
Below are maps of the five areas officers targeted in Central, East, Metro and South patrols (click to see larger versions):
