With KC's 2020 homicide increase below national average and clearance rates above, KCPD works to buck violent crime trends

Kansas City, Mo., was, tragically, part of a national trend that saw a large increase in homicides in 2020. The KCPD, however, is doing everything to buck those trends. Our homicide rate dropped significantly in the fall, and our clearance rate for 2020 was well above the national average.

Not all the national data from 2020 have been compiled yet, but FBI statistics from the first nine months show that homicides were up 20.9 percent in America. In the nation’s 69 largest cities, homicides through Sept. 30, 2020, were up by 28.7%, according to the Major Cities Chiefs Association. Kansas City recorded 148 homicides in 2019 and 176 in 2020. That’s a 19% increase, which was below the national average in increased homicides. (Although right now the national average is composed of just the first nine months of 2020.)  

But all the numbers do not ease the grief of anyone who lost a loved one to violence, and 2020 was, indeed, a record-setting homicide year in our city. That’s why we undertook many initiatives to combat the violence, such as assigning additional homicide and assault detectives and Operation LeGend – a 10-week influx of nearly 200 federal agents to help us solve violent crime cases and get the most violent offenders into custody.

Homicides fell significantly after Operation LeGend, which ran from mid-July to mid-September. You can see the monthly rate of homicides this year compared to the average over the past five years. We cannot definitively say Operation LeGend was the cause, but there was correlation. Before Operation LeGend, we were on pace to have more than 200 homicides in 2020.

We also worked diligently to get justice for those who were killed. Based on the FBI’s Uniform Crime Rate (UCR) standard, our homicide clearance rate for 2020 was 73%. That’s up significantly from 2019, when it was 55%. The FBI reported that the national average homicide clearance rate was 61.4% in 2019, the most recent data available. It typically hovers in the low 60s. Despite a higher workload, our investigators were able to bring justice to the loved ones of 128 victims in 2020.

Our clearance rates go against national trends recently noted in the Wall Street Journal, showing that police in the United States have been clearing fewer murders during the pandemic.

Despite being below the national average for homicide increases, the increase was nonetheless devastating for our community. We had 1- and 4-year-old murder victims. Fathers, sons, brothers, mothers, sisters and daughters lost their lives to senseless violence, inflicting untold trauma on families.

The men and women of the Kansas City Missouri Police Department, alongside our community, local, state and federal partners, will do everything we can to prevent and solve these crimes. Operation LeGend left us with additional federal resources to stop gun crimes and more. As always, police cannot succeed in a vacuum, so we need the help of residents to make their neighborhoods safer. If you know something that can help us solve or prevent a violent crime, let the TIPS Hotline know at 816-474-TIPS (8477). You could even earn a $25,000 cash reward and stay anonymous.

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Operation LeGend isn’t over, and KC homicide rate continues to decrease

The “surge” portion of Operation LeGend may be complete in Kansas City, but this partnership between KCPD and our federal law enforcement partners to reduce violent crime is going to continue well into the future.

I am at a meeting of the Major City Chiefs Association today at which U.S. Attorney General William Barr is discussing Operation LeGend. Operation LeGend brought hundreds of federal agents into Kansas City to help our agency investigate violent crimes during an unprecedented increase. They helped us take dozens of murderers, and many more shooters, robbers and other perpetrators of violent crime into custody. They brought the resources of the entire federal criminal justice system to Kansas City, meaning many of those suspects now are facing federal charges and are in custody in federal detention until their trials.

The homicide rate in Kansas City has dropped precipitously since the implementation of Operation LeGend, as you can see in this chart.




The resources of Operation LeGend allowed us to investigate violent crimes and arrest suspects much faster than we would have been able to do alone. Their assistance with analysis, interviewing witnesses and suspects who have left the metro area and more have been invaluable.

Operation LeGend is not over. While we have long had a great working relationship with our federal law enforcement partners, those relationships are being enhanced. For many years, we have had several specialized squads composed of both KCPD and federal agents, and that’s growing. The FBI’s Kansas City Field Office will embed additional personnel in our Violent Crimes Division.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) also has created a new criminal enforcement group in Kansas City made up of eight agents and a supervisor. They are assigned to work full time with our Assault Squad to investigate non-fatal shootings. They work alongside our detectives here in KCPD Headquarters on things like ballistics intelligence to connect shootings and link suspects to firearms. They also are helping us charge shooters with federal gun law violations to get them off the streets as soon as possible.

There is still work to be done. The additional federal resources coming through the continuation of Operation LeGend will help us continue to hold violent offenders accountable and increase safety in our neighborhoods.

Operation LeGend is about enforcement, but we have all heard that police can’t “arrest our way out” of a violent crime issue. That’s why we’re working with faith leaders in the Getting to the Heart of the Matter initiative to address some of the root causes of crime. It’s why we partnered with churches from the Northland to the Southland this past weekend on Faith and Blue events that provided more than 45,000 meals to residents. It’s why we employ social workers and a specialized Crisis Intervention Team Squad and so much more.

The KCPD is working to address violent crime from multiple angles, and the help of both federal and community partners makes that work so much more effective. 

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org. 

In violent year, KCPD’s homicide clearance rate remains well above average

Despite a record-high workload, the Kansas City Missouri Police Department is maintaining a clearance rate that is well above-average for homicide cases. Our solve rate is even higher.

Our clearance rate is recorded as a Uniform Crime Report (UCR) rate, as mandated by the FBI. Our UCR clearance rate is 70% today. The national average is 62%. UCR is based on casework completed this year compared to total homicides this year. It gives credit to all cases solved in 2020, regardless of whether the homicide occurred in years prior.

As of today, we have cleared 62 homicides from 2020 and 27 from previous years, for a total of 89. Just last week we identified persons of interest in two 2019 homicide cases. Our detectives and crime lab staff deserve for their work to be counted on those cases, as well, which is what UCR does. We will never stop seeking justice on unsolved homicides.

Most homicides aren’t solved like on television shows. If we don’t figure out who did it at the scene, there’s extensive work that needs to happen in the days, weeks and months that follow: witness interviews, extracting data from phones, social media analysis, video review, forensic analysis of DNA, firearms and other evidence. Those things take time. They also take people and equipment, and both of those are finite resources. All of those things are vitally important to ensure we identify the right person as a suspect and put forward a case that can successfully be prosecuted.

The violence in Kansas City this year was outpacing our capacity, despite the addition of eight additional homicide squad detectives and 12 additional assault squad detectives earlier this year. (Aggravated assaults, usually shootings, often are the precursors to homicides.)

That’s why Operation LeGend has been so helpful. By giving us additional investigators and resources, they have allowed us to conduct these investigations at a faster rate than we could have on our own. Operation LeGend is assisting not just with homicides but with all violent crimes: shootings, robberies and more. And since they have been in town, the pace of homicides and other violent crime has slowed, which is good for everyone in Kansas City.

Operation LeGend also has helped in detaining violent criminals prior to trial. Police are only the first stop in the criminal justice system. Courts, judges, prosecutors, corrections and probation and parole all have a part to play in holding accountable those who would harm others. Officers can make arrests all day, every day, but if the rest of the system doesn’t keep up, dangerous people remain in the community.

That’s why we define a case that is “cleared” differently from a case that is “solved.” Solved is what we can do. Cleared is up to other players in the criminal justice system. Solved means we have probable cause to charge a suspect for a crime. Cleared generally means that the county prosecutor’s office agreed and charged the suspect or the case was exceptionally cleared.

We currently have 14 cases submitted to prosecutors’ offices, of which 13 of these are solved - not cleared - cases. One case is cleared, but there are still additional suspects to charge. The remainders are awaiting charging decisions by prosecutors or a grand jury’s decision. If every solved case was a cleared case, we would have 102 total cases cleared this year, for an 80% solve rate.

Community cooperation continues to be vital for us in continuing to clear these cases. In so many cases, all it takes is one person coming forward. And in all homicide cases, you can remain anonymous and get a $25,000 reward.

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org.