A look back at the good things in 2019

As police officers, we’re in the business of being there when bad things happen. Therefore, we often become the topic of bad things in discussions. It’s hard for people who are always responding to horrific acts – like our city’s despicable homicide rate – to come up in the same conversation as really great things that happen in our community. As we reflect on 2019, however, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the good things in which our department has gotten to be involved.

Social workers
Our social workers continue to make a tremendous impact on the lives of people throughout Kansas City. This was the first full year we’ve had one at all six patrol divisions. Their job is to help in situations that come to the attention of law enforcement but cannot be resolved by police. They’ve helped a family whose home burned down. They’ve helped victims of domestic violence start new lives. And ultimately, they’ve gotten residents the resources they need to be successful and reduced the need for law enforcement involvement. As of Dec. 3, KCPD social workers have assisted 1,815 people and attended 488 community outreach events in 2019.

Community Interaction Officers
Our 12 Community Interaction Officers (CIOs) – two at each patrol division station – have worked tirelessly to build relationships with residents and make neighborhoods safer. They’ve provided block-watch training for countless neighborhoods to empower residents in keeping their communities safe. The CIOs work with business owners to implement security measures and address concerns. They’ve worked hand-in-hand with social workers to address issues of repeated calls for service to particular addresses and in finding help for families in need.

They have organized countless free community events from family movie nights to job fairs for ex-offenders to health and safety fairs to Christmas parties for deserving youth. Our Kansas City United Against Crime events coordinated by CIOs in the first weekend of October brought communities together to play, learn and get to know one another. Our Halloween events – undertaken with business, church and non-profit partners – gave thousands of children a safe place to go on Halloween. All of these things also built lasting relationships between children, their families and KCPD.

Youth programs
One of the biggest ways we can impact the future safety of our city is through building trust and understanding with youth. I’ve previously written about Teens in Transition, the Police Athletic League and many other things we do to facilitate those relationships. We expanded the Police Athletic League last year to include PAL Nights - a structured and fun environment for urban-core youth on weekend nights in the spring and summer. This offers a safe place for kids to socialize and enjoy themselves while getting to know officers in a relaxed setting. 

I wanted to highlight a few of our other youth initiatives here:

Youth Police Initiative – Our Youth Police Initiative began in 2018, and an academic review of the program in 2019 shows what an impact it’s making. The program’s goal is to bring at-risk youth together with police officers to share personal stories, meals and to let their guards down long enough to have difficult and honest discussions that will create relationships and understanding for both the youth and officers. The John Jay College of Criminal Justice surveyed the 45 participants in our Youth Police Initiative at the beginning and the end of their week in the program. Over the course of that week, the teens who said, “I know at least one police officer who I can trust” went up by 181%. You can read more about it in our February 2019 Informant newsletter.

Youth Police Academy – This week-long version of the Citizens Police Academy for middle schoolers had more than 150 participants from throughout the City. They did everything from dust for fingerprints to learn conflict resolution.

Catching Fury – This camp was designed by women on our department and at neighboring police and fire departments to encourage young women ages 13 to 17 to pursue careers in public safety in partnership with the Girl Scouts of America. More is on p. 3 of our June Informant newsletter.

Explorers – We’ve recently restarted our Police Explorer Program in conjunction with the Boy Scouts of America. This program is for youth ages 14-20 to introduce them to all aspects of our department so that they might consider careers here. Explorers also volunteer with KCPD and will be issued uniforms and radios.

School Resource Officers – We have School Resource Officers (SROs) serving at several high schools in the Kansas City Public School District. They are there in an official capacity to help with security and enforce any laws as needed, but what they really do is serve as mentors. For many of the kids in those schools, the SROs are one of the few people in their lives who offer stability. Many students confide in the SROs, and the SROs have been known to take teens having a hard time under their wings. I would love to be able to expand our SRO program. 

DARE - We have DARE officers in nearly every elementary school in this city - parochial, public and charter - north and south of the River. We believe getting officers in contact with children at a young age teaches them that police are trustworthy and there to help. I regularly hear rave reviews from teachers about the impact our DARE officers have on children in the schools they serve.

Badges for Basics
Our Badges for Basics program is solving crime and building trust with toilet paper and shampoo. This collaboration with the non-profit, Giving the Basics, provides hygiene products to members of our community who have difficulty affording them. Our officers go to high-crime and low-income areas to hand out these products so residents can have dignity. The Badges for Basics partnership earned the Excellence in Collaboration honor from NonProfit Connect’s Philanthropy Awards in May and has been featured in multiple national publications. From March 21 through today, Badges for Basics has given out nearly 30,000 hygiene products.

Holiday help
Just two weeks ago, we partnered with Hy-Vee and Harvesters to provide 500 free Christmas dinners to needy families. On Dec. 23, we worked with Hy-Vee again to deliver catered meals to four deserving families identified by our social workers. Many Christmas gifts were delivered that day, as well. I couldn’t possibly count how much money our members spend out of their own pockets to make the holidays brighter for so many families in our community. It’s not just during the holidays, either. I’d be willing to bet every officer on this department has bought a Happy Meal for a child in a tough situation.

Assisting sexual assault victims
One of our crime scene technicians went viral with her idea to provide new sheets and bedding to victims of sexual assault. CSI usually has to take these items to process for physical evidence, and it often is the only bedding the victim has. When our CSI tech asked for donations of new sheets to provide to victims, the request went viral on our Facebook page in 2018. It recirculated again this year, and we received so many packages of new sheets and bedding in 2019 (from Kansas City and around the world) that we ran out of room to store them and distributed them to neighboring agencies.


Many of the things outlined here are not short-term fixes to problems like violent crime or mistrust of law enforcement. They are means to meeting long-term goals of a safer city for everyone and a trusting relationship between KCPD and the community. We are in it for the long haul. Fixing the problems of violence and mistrust takes long, hard work, and we are committed to that.

We may not be able to convince every last person that we are here for good, but for the 32 years I’ve been here, this police department has been working tirelessly to build as much trust as we possibly can. I think that sets us apart from other cities where a trusting relationship with the community isn’t such a priority for law enforcement. That trust is a very big deal to me and the members of the KCPD, and we will work toward it with every Trunk-or-Treat, social worker visit and 911 response we can.

You may have noticed that many of the good things we got to be a part of in 2019 were the result of partnerships with individuals, non-profits, faith communities and businesses. These are people who care deeply about their city and want good things for it. They help pay for the projector at movie nights, holiday meals at Christmas and Halloween candy for children. They transport beds for our social workers to give to families who don’t have one. They give us hygiene products to help those who need them for dignity. They are the unsung heroes of Kansas City.

What I’ve outlined here are just a very few of the good things we got to be part of in 2019. Yes, we will always be there when the bad things happen, but we look forward to being part of more and more good, as well.

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org 

Study finds police are one of the most trusted groups in America

A recent study from Pew Research Center indicates that police officers are one of the most trusted authorities in America, ranking just below public school principals and ahead of the six other groups discussed in the survey, including religious leaders and journalists. Members of Congress ranked at the bottom of the list.

I think this study contradicts the national narrative that mistrust of the police is raging nationwide. The silent majority of Americans support law enforcement. According to the study, “Police officers also are viewed in a positive light by the U.S. public. More than eight-in-ten (84%) U.S. adults say police officers protect people from crime ‘all or most’ or ‘some of the time.’ Three-quarters or more also say that police officers care about people (79%), responsibly handle the resources available to them (79%) and provide fair and accurate information to the public (74%) at least some of the time.

For several years now, we have seen story after story about how confidence in law enforcement has fallen off or that trust is at an all-time low. According to the Pew study, that is not the case. The stories also say no one would want to be a police officer in times of such mistrust. That hasn’t been our experience, either. We have had a wonderful response to our recruitment efforts and get about a thousand applications for the position of police officer each year. This is a noble profession, and I am grateful that so many people want to pursue it with our agency.

This is not to say we don’t have work to do. The study also pointed out, “Opinions about police officers differ widely by racial and ethnic group, with white people holding more positive opinions about police officers than black people and Hispanics do. … Roughly seven-in-ten white Americans (72%) say police officers treat racial and ethnic groups equally at least some of the time. By way of comparison, half of Hispanics and just 33% of black adults say the same.”

This divide shows where we have work to do, and it’s something we are working tirelessly with the community to address. I believe this starts with our young people, which is why programs like the Youth Police Initiative, Teens in Transition, the KC Police Athletic League (PAL) and more are so important in building trust. Another important piece in bridging that gap is the Office of Community Complaints, which has a national reputation as a premier civilian oversight board that residents can turn to when they feel police aren’t acting in their best interest. Reflecting our community in our staffing remains an ongoing challenge, and one we will continue to pursue.

A community depends on its law enforcement and its trust of that law enforcement. I’m pleased that the Pew Center study showed police are one of the most trusted groups in America, and we have been blessed by all the support we have received and continue to receive in Kansas City. Residents and KCPD members alike want a trustworthy police department we can all be proud of.

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org. 

August homicides, case progress and improved community cooperation

August was a difficult month for Kansas City, Mo., in terms of violent crime. There were 20 homicides. Each one of those victims is someone’s loved one. Someone’s friend. We are working hard to hold the people who commit these heinous acts accountable. Despite the influx of murders, our detectives have done an admirable job of investigating and solving these crimes. They have literally worked around the clock.

We have four homicide squads, and they rotate being on call. On several occasions this month, the Homicide Unit commander had to put more than one squad on call. At one point during the weekend of Aug. 4 and 5, every single homicide squad and detective was either on call, on standby or actively working, just to handle the workload. That caused many of them to break or change their weekend plans to handle active cases.  I want to publicly commend them for their hard work, which I think you’ll better understand when you read the below.

While all these new homicides were taking place, our detectives also managed to solve three prior cases this August, including a triple murder. We’ve outlined those below, too.  Year to date, we now have the highest homicide clearance rate we’ve experienced in the last six years. As of Aug. 31, we were at 74 percent. (That’s according to FBI’s Unified Crime Reporting definition of clearance, which credits the clearance to the year the clearance occurred, not the year the homicide was committed. So past years’ homicides solved this year figure into the 2018 clearance rate.) Consider these homicide clearance rates from where we have been as of Aug. 29 in previous years (also according to the UCR clearance definition):

08-29-18               74%

08-29-17               45%

08-29-16               63%

08-29-15               53%

08-29-14               65%

08-29-13               62%

Even in the cases that aren’t cleared, you’ll see there are few cases in which detectives have no idea what happened. I’ve seen a lot of homicide cases over the years in which detectives know exactly who the suspect is but need witnesses' help to get the evidence needed to arrest and prosecute a person. And several of those happened in August. Because no matter how good they are, our detectives cannot solve these cases without your help. We must work together to bring justice for grieving families and to prevent these crimes from happening in the first place. Fortunately, the improving clearance rates are evidence that this is happening more and more.

I wanted to start by sharing the non-August 2018 cases our homicide detectives got to prosecution last month:

October 2, 2017, at 7601 Monroe, Victim Marco Green.
Suspect: William Johnson.
Johnson shot Green while he sat in the back of a car. Johnson has been charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action.

October 10, 2017, at 4900 E. 17^th St., Victims:  Jennifer and Victor Portillo, Yessenia Ahumana.
Suspect: Deaundre Brown.
Brown was present when the three victims were shot – one of whom was his ex-girlfriend – in a reported drug deal gone bad. He was charged with three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of armed criminal action.

July 28, 2018, at 8503 East 92^nd St., Victim Deandrea Vine.
Suspect Xzavier McDowell
McDowell stabbed the victim, his girlfriend, to death in an apparent domestic violence incident. He has been charged with second-degree murder, armed criminal action and tampering with physical evidence.

Now, here are the August 2018 homicide cases and the progress detectives have made on them. On most of the cases that haven’t already been charged, we know who did it. On several of them, we just need the right witnesses to come forward or the right forensic evidence processed in order to prosecute. I’d like to remind everyone of the $10,000 award available for information leading to charges in these cases by contacting the Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477). You will remain anonymous:

Aug. 1 -  5018 Chestnut,  Victim:  BERNICE BROWN,  black female, age 43
Officers responded to a large outside disturbance that was updated to a shooting. They found the victim in the street suffering from a gunshot wound.  Suspect Tyjuan Caldwell was charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action. 

Aug. 1 -  3604 Bridge Manor Dr.,  Victim:  Hao Xingdong, Asian male, age 38
Officers responded to a shooting and located the victim on the side of the road suffering from a gunshot to the back of the head.  It was reported the suspect was running down the road shooting at a vehicle with a shotgun.  Two other victims received non-life threatening injuries.  Suspect Curtrail J. Hudson was charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action.

Aug. 2 – 22nd and Walrond,  Victim:  Tyrone Standifer, black male, age 54
Officers were dispatched to the area of 18^th and Prospect on a reported shooting and located two victims inside a vehicle.  Both had been shot, and Standifer was deceased from a gunshot wound.  Police believe the shooting occurred in the area of 22^nd and Walrond. Detectives have some forensic leads but still need tips.    

Aug. 5 -  1300 E. 89^th St.,  Victim:  Shanterria Edwards, black female, age 26
Officers heard the souths of gunshots in the area and responded to investigate.  They found the deceased victim inside a vehicle suffering from gunshot wounds.  There is no suspect information at this time. 

Aug. 5 -  107^th and Greenwood,  Victim: Cyrenaica Lang, black female, age 55
Officers were dispatched on a medical nature unknown.  When they got to the scene, they found the victim in the street, unresponsive. EMS responded and declared her deceased. It appears the victim had been shot. We have a subject of interest in this case and are working with the Crime Lab on further evidence.

Aug. 7 – 4909 East 39^th Place, Victim:  Leo Woodruff, black male, age 17
Three days earlier, at 11:38 p.m. Aug. 4, officers responded to a shots fired call. Upon arrival, they found the victim lying in the street suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. Woodruff died at a hospital on Aug. 7 at 5 p.m. We have good leads and continue to identify and interview people connected with the case.

Aug. 7 – 17^th and White, Victim:  Justin P. Graham, white male, age 26
A resident contacted officers to tell them there was a body in the woods. They went to the wooded area the resident had indicated and discovered a decomposed body, which was later ruled a homicide. Detectives have good leads, and the investigation continues. 

Aug. 7 – 9^th and Harrison, Victim: Terriante McClinton, black male, age 27
Officers were dispatched at 11:30 p.m. on a reported sound of shots. They found two men suffering from gunshot wounds. One survived, and the other succumbed to his injuries. An argument between several people preceded the shooting.  It appears the shooting occurred at or near the park in the southwest corner of 9th and Harrison. Detectives have identified a subject of interest and are looking for him.

Aug. 8 – 6801 St. John, Victim: Brittanie K. Broyles, white female, age 28
A truck driver coming to pick up supplies near 6801 St. John reported a dead body among several telephone poles on the ground outside. The driver called police at about 9:14 a.m. Police saw that the woman was dead from an apparent gunshot wound. Detectives have identified a subject of interest and are working with other department elements on the investigation.

Aug. 11 – 6112 Tracy, Victim:  Dajuan G. Alvarez, black male, age 30
At about 11:26 p.m., subjects dropped the victim off at a hospital emergency room and left. Doctors initially thought the victim had been stabbed. He died at the hospital. The people who dropped him off eventually came back to the hospital, and police questioned them. They told police the victim had been in a fight and had gotten shot, which an autopsy later confirmed. Police have gotten several tips and have a possible subject of interest. They continue to work on getting witnesses to come forward.

Aug. 12 – 3543 Prospect, Victim:  Jerel A. Price, black male, age 27
The gunshot detection system Shotspotter alerted police to a sound of shots about 11:53 p.m. at 3543 Prospect Ave. They found the victim with gunshot wounds in the northbound lanes of traffic. Nearby security video shows the victim had an altercation with two black males, one of whom pulled out a gun and shot the victim. Detectives are trying to identify those two men.

Aug. 15 – 12550 Raytown Road, Victims: Keith Wasmer, age 25, and Michael R. Brewer, age 29, both white males
At about 12:50 p.m. KCPD officers were dispatched to the area of 12550 Raytown Road on a reported dead body call. Upon arrival, officers were directed to a remote location approximately 3/4 of a mile west of the dispatched location. This area is heavily wooded and near a trail. They located the two victims’ bodies. Despite their state of decomposition, the Jackson County Medical Examiner determined they have suffered apparent trauma and has ruled the victims’ deaths as homicides. We have identified at least one person involved.

Aug. 16 – 470 and View High Drive, Victim:  Tasheika S. Baker, black female, age 41
Officers were dispatched about 10:29 p.m. to a shooting at I-470 and Raytown Road. They looked all over the area and eventually found the victim at I-470 and View High. Lee's Summit Fire/EMS were first at the scene and transported the victim to the hospital, where she was declared deceased. Detectives are working with federal partners on a possible lead but otherwise have little to go on.

Aug. 17 – 3339 Wabash, Victim:  Morris “Mack” Clay, black male, age 66
Officers were dispatched to 3339 Wabash at 4:41 p.m. They found the victim with an apparent gunshot wound on the front porch of a house. They attempted CPR while tactical officers cleared the house because witnesses said the suspect may be inside.  The victim died. The suspect was not inside, but he had driven away just after the shooting. Officers located him, and now Marshall Celestine has been charged with second-degree murder, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon. He is being held on a $100k cash-only bond. 

Aug. 19 – 435 and Eastwood, Victim:  Gabriel J. Edgar, black male, age 36
Officers were initially dispatched at 3:41 a.m. on a vehicle crash at 435 and Eastwood. When they got there, they found the victim shot to death in the northbound lanes of 435 at Eastwood Trafficway. A tow truck driver first discovered the victim. Detectives have identified a person of interest and are working with the Crime Lab on analysis to move the case forward.

 

Aug. 19 – 10^th and Harrison, Victim:  Dante L. Wachteler, white male, age 25
Officers were dispatched at 4:41 a.m. on a sound of shots and found the victim in the street suffering from a gunshot wound. There were no witnesses at the scene, and police have few leads.  

Aug. 19 – 14^th and White, Victim:  Curtis A. Presley, black male, age 21
The victim was with a man who was giving a ride to two other male suspects – a juvenile and an adult –to buy marijuana. The suspects asked the victims to pull over at 14^th and White, and when they did, the suspects attempted to rob the victims of their car, money and cell phone. The deceased victim refused to turn over his phone and was subsequently shot by the juvenile suspect. The juvenile has been charged in Family Court. Police have identified the adult suspect and are looking for him. 

Aug. 25 – 6816 Cleveland, Victim:  Raphael M. Butler-Grimmet, black male, age 17
An officer in the area heard shots at about 5:09 a.m. and saw a car fleeing the scene. Police pursued that vehicle to 7^th and Rainbow in Kansas City, Kan. Other officers went to 68^th and Cleveland, where they found the victim dead from apparent gunshot wounds. There were several witnesses at the scene. Police learned the shooting stemmed from an argument among people who knew each other. The driver of the vehicle that left the scene has been charged with felony eluding.  The shooter has been identified and remains at large. Officers are actively searching for the suspect

Aug. 29 – 7041 Askew, Victim: Christopher M. Cropp, white male, age 36
Officers responding on a reported shooting at 12:59 p.m. found the victim in the front yard of the house with a gunshot wound. Investigation revealed that someone known to the suspect came to retrieve property and brought the suspect with them. The unarmed victim was standing outside the suspect’s vehicle when they got into an altercation, and the suspect shot him from inside the vehicle. The suspect, David W. Worlledge, has been charged with second-degree murder, armed criminal action and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Aug. 30 – 4029 Park, Victim: Joseph H. Honea, white male, age 43
The Shotspotter gunshot detection system alerted officers to shots fired in the vacant lot at 4029 Park at 4:29 a.m. They found the victim deceased from multiple gunshot wounds. Detectives have some information about the victim’s activities prior to his death, but they need more leads.

Again, you can come forward with information while remaining anonymous and earning a $10,000 reward by calling TIPS. More and more people are doing so. Because the good news is that overall violent crime – including homicides – is down year-to-date. You can see the homicide numbers updated daily on our web site. And so far, non-deadly shootings through Sept. 2 are down nearly 13 percent compared to the same time last year. This shows that our community is standing up and opposing the culture of violence in Kansas City.   

Coming up on October 6, each of our six patrol divisions will host a Citizens United Against Crime event (see the flier below) at various locations throughout the city. We hope this fun event will continue to enhance our collaboration with residents by building relationships and providing education in crime prevention.

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org. 

The impact of a social worker partnering with police

There are a lot of people dealing with issues in Kansas City that are frankly not the job of police to address: family problems, poverty, addiction and more. But it is those very issues that create crime problems in our community.

That’s why KCPD took a leadership role in embedding a social worker in one of our inner-city patrol divisions. It’s a unique partnership, and it’s changing people’s lives in a way that enhances public safety. She started in December 2016, and after a year on the job, the impact social worker Gina English is making continues to amaze me.

Lately, she’s taken it upon herself to volunteer and mentor youth incarcerated at the Juvenile Justice Center (JJC). She’s been working to let the young inmates there know that there is support available for them when they get out to do something different with their lives. Since she is working on behalf of KCPD, she’s also planting the seeds of positive relationships between these young people and law enforcement.

Gina was out shopping last week when she ran into one of the young men she’d spoken with at the JJC. He had been released and was working at a retail store. After speaking with him, Gina learned it was one of two jobs he had. He also no longer was attending an alternative school because he’d caught up on all of his work. Now in a regular high school, he’s making all A’s and B’s. This was a young man who had violated the law and was incarcerated, but now he is well on his way to being a productive member of society. After she spoke with him, Gina talked to his manager at the store. She told the manager that the teen was committed to his future, and that she’d made a great decision to take a chance on hiring him.

When a family came into the Central Patrol station this week to inquire about a driver’s license issue, Gina saw their 6-year-old boy didn’t have a coat. Although the family’s problem probably would best have been addressed at the Department of Motor Vehicles, one of our officers called down to Jefferson City to help make inquiries for them. While he was doing so (Gina had directed him to stall the family a bit), Gina ran out and obtained a coat for the boy. They left the station with their questions answered and a new coat, and the whole family had a new appreciation and trust for police.

Gina also got three people into substance treatment last week. As always, she is humble. She told me, “I just take advantage of what’s already available in the community and make connections for them. And how great is it that this help is coming from the place of law enforcement?”

That is just some of what one person did in one week in one area of the city (Central Patrol Division). Imagine what more social workers embedded with law enforcement across the city could do. We are working on funding that vision at each patrol division to create even stronger partnerships between social workers, police department members – especially community interaction officers - and our community. We are willing to forge nontraditional partnerships that work to decrease crime in our city. People who don’t have their basic needs met will always look for alternative means. The KCPD is striving to assist with those alternative means, as opposed to criminal means.

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org 

I'm proud of KCPD members and our city

I would like to take the time to say how proud I am of the members of the Kansas City Missouri Police Department and thank them for their professionalism and service in keeping our community safe. KCPD members continue to show what compassionate and caring individuals they are. I continue to be proud of the professionalism and compassion they exhibit.

I am encouraged by and appreciate all the support we have received and continue to receive from other segments of the community. Messages are constantly flooding in on social media and elsewhere thanking me for all the department does. Our officers dole out small kindnesses every day that most people will never know.

But I would be remiss not to thank the people of Kansas City, as well. Thank you for your civility. Thank you for letting your thoughts be known in a peaceful manner. One of my main goals as chief of police is to improve relationships between KCPD and other segments of the community. We are working toward that every day. I look forward to continuing to build upon the relationships we have made thus far and enhancing the trust between police and our community.

I am proud and honored to serve such an engaged community and will continue to work together to make our city safe. Your continued support is needed and truly appreciated.

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org.