The Crime Free Multi-Housing officers who operate out of
each of our six patrol division stations work to make rental properties safe
for everyone who lives and stays there. They do so by educating owners and
managers on everything from proper lighting to drug identification to crafting
leases that ban criminal activity.
But the Crime Free Multi-Housing officers at the Shoal Creek
Patrol Division, Adam Hill and Chad Safranek, have taken their duties to the
next level. In addition to working with apartment complexes, they also have
begun working with hotels, motels and storage units. And Shoal Creek is the
only one of our patrol divisions that has its Crime Free officers assigned to
the Property Crimes Section. Unlike other Crime Free Multi-Housing officers,
they work the cases that occur on multi-family properties – finding suspects,
conducting interrogations and submitting case files to prosecutors. This
outside-the-box approach is solving many issues within the division.
Their work with local hotels and motels also is
unprecedented. The officers say their goal is to keep the criminal element out
of these properties and to keep guests safe. Officers Hill and Safranek have
been working toward this with gusto. They shut down two pay-by-the-week motels
that were riddled with crime, drugs and unsanitary living conditions. They
earned the City’s Rich Noll Pacesetter Award for this work. They have
conducted multiple warrant sweeps and inspections at these extended stay-type
motels, which tend to attract criminal activity.
Thanks to Officers Hill’s and Safranek’s work, two hotels
are certified Crime Free properties now, the Holiday Inn Express at 8230 N.
Church Rd. and the Comfort Suites at 8200 N. Church Rd. The officers are
training their counterparts in other patrol divisions how to expand the Crime
Free Multi-Housing concept to hotels and motels.
In 2013, Officers Hill and Safranek generated 279 reports
from multi-housing properties, including apartments, hotels and motels. These
led to about 60 people being evicted for criminal behavior and the termination
of several tenants’ public housing assistance. The evictions result in safer
housing for the thousands of law-abiding people who live in these properties.
Officers Hill and Safranek are eager to spread the good the
Crime Free Multi-Housing program can do. Kansas City is playing host to the national
Crime Free Multi-Housing conference this summer, and the officers will be
conducting the hotel/motel portion of that training. I’m proud of the
innovation shown by these officers and so many others on our department who are
determined to make Kansas City a safer place to live, work and play.
(Click to learn more about our Crime Free Multi-Housingprogram.)
Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org
