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. 

We're making changes to address homicides and non-fatal shootings

While so much of our other crime is trending downward, shootings and homicides remain a persistent issue in our city. Although police are by no means solely responsible for the increase or decrease in these crimes, we are obligated to do everything in our power to address them and bring offenders to justice.

We also know we can’t work in a vacuum. It takes partnerships across the city and an evaluation of best practices nationwide to make the systemic changes needed to impact our stubborn violent crime rate. In 2019, Kansas City had 148 homicides and 491 non-fatal shootings.

A focus on prolific violent offenders

One of the places where you can see that change is happening is with the Kansas City No Violence Alliance, or KC NoVA.  KC NoVA has been and continues to be about focused deterrence, but after extensive evaluation, KC NoVA switched its enforcement strategy last year from targeting group-related violence to targeting individuals who are frequently involved in violent, gun-related crimes. This approach has seen great success in cities like Tampa, which has had a dramatic reduction in violent crime. Although the number of these violent offenders is low, they are responsible for the vast amount of our violent crime. Research from Tampa identified that 6% of their violent offenders were responsible for 60% of violent crime.

As a reminder, KC NoVA is a partnership between KCPD, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, The Jackson County Prosecutor, FBI, ATF, the Mayor’s Office and Missouri Probation and Parole. All of those partners remain at the table with us, and they are integral in reducing the gun-related crimes that plague Kansas City. We work together now more than ever.

But homicides and non-fatal shootings continue to be an issue in Kansas City, so we needed to adapt. The U.S. Department of Justice’s Public Safety Partnership spent 18 months with us evaluating NoVA and advising us on how we could move forward. The result is this new enforcement strategy that targets the trigger-pullers.

Reviewing non-fatal shootings

The Public Safety Partnership also introduced us to a best practice from police in our peer city of Milwaukee. As of January 8, we are now conducting weekly shooting review meetings. These cover all homicides and non-fatal shootings that took place in the past week and follow up on case progress from previous weeks. Again, this is driven by partnerships with state and federal prosecutors and Missouri Probation and Parole. All of the partners attend the meetings with our investigative and patrol elements to ensure each case is investigated to the best of its ability.

This new meeting of criminal justice partners emphasizes accountability: each of the partners – including KCPD – is holding each other responsible for effectively carrying out their role in the criminal justice process. This is a great improvement in communication and accountability through the whole system.

Adding investigative resources

With the dawn of the New Year, we have doubled the number of detectives assigned to work non-fatal shooting cases. All too often, many of the victims and suspects in these incidents later become victims or suspects in homicides. With 491 non-fatal shootings last year (a 9% increase from 2018), we have doubled the number of detectives in our Assault Squads from 12 to 24. They are charged with investigating cases in which someone is assaulted with a weapon but survives. 

We also have added eight homicide detectives, bringing the total number to 32.

These shifts have led to us moving resources from other places, like Mounted Patrol. That decision wasn’t popular, but it is needed to focus resources on stopping the perpetrators of gun violence in our city.

Ultimately, police can’t be there every time someone decides to resolve an argument with a gun. If you know someone who is planning violence, please let us know. We are making changes, however, to identify those most involved with gun violence, work their case to the fullest extent and ensure accountability with the help of our partners in the criminal justice system and the community.

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.

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Partnerships increase safety on KC's public transit

Every city needs a vibrant public transportation system. Every resident of our city should to be able to safely get to work, school, libraries, stores and more, regardless of whether they own a vehicle. The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (a.k.a. RideKC) provides the transportation through buses and the streetcar. Our role is to keep public transit safe, and we’re trying to accomplish that through partnerships.

For more than 20 years, dozens of off-duty KCPD officers have worked in a security capacity on Kansas City’s buses and at RideKC transit hubs. We’ve had many off-duty officers also provide security on the Downtown Streetcar since it launched in 2016.

But we took this partnership one step further. Last year, we established a Transit Unit with the KCATA. Two officers are assigned full time to patrol bus stops and routes and respond to any incident involving a KCATA bus. KCATA Chief Executive Officer Robbie Makinen said this when the agreement was formalized: “Our partnership with KCPD has always been strong, and it’s getting stronger.” I concur.

We’re happy to see this partnership keeping riders and drivers safe. The American Public Transportation Association announced KCATA won a Gold Award in its 2017 Bus Safety and Security Excellence Awards in May. Among other things, the award recognized the KCATA-KCPD partnership as an innovative effort. This partnership and other security steps taken by KCATA have resulted in a 47 percent decrease in operator assaults from the prior year.

I’ve also lost track of how many great social media posts we’ve gotten from people riding the Streetcar who are happy the police are there. They often send us pictures they’ve taken with the officers and say how much they appreciate the officers’ presence and positive attitudes.

This partnership with KCATA is just one of many ways we are working with organizations and individuals throughout the area to make our city safer for everyone. I’ll be sharing more on this blog about other partnerships we have and that we are working to develop on to enhance safety in our community.

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org.

My first week as Chief

(Chief Richard Smith was sworn in as KCPD's 45th Chief of Police on Aug. 15, 2017.)

It’s been just more than a week now since I was sworn in as the Chief of Police of the Kansas City Missouri Police Department, and it has been a whirlwind. I again thank the Board of Police Commissioners for giving me the opportunity to serve in this role. I am humbled and honored to do so.

I’d like to share with you a little about my first week as Chief. Last Thursday, the 17th, I met with all of our commanders and directors to discuss my vision for the department and how I think we can work together to achieve it. I have three primary goals:

1. Set employees up for success

2. Reduce crime and address neighborhood issues

3. Become more efficient and effective through partnerships.

There are many, many factors that go into achieving these things, and I’ll be sharing those in the future. But I wanted to give you a few examples of each of them now.

Set employees up for success- To better cope with the growing mental health crisis that is falling more and more on law enforcement, all patrol officers will receive Crisis Intervention Team training. This will allow every responding officer to have the tools and training necessary to respond to people in mental health or substance abuse crisis in a way that ensures everyone is safe and the person gets needed assistance.

Reduce crime and address neighborhood issues- We’re implementing patrol division-level crime intelligence meetings. Commanders of each patrol division will be held accountable for the crime in their areas. And as soon as staffing allows, all patrol division stations will have an additional community interaction officer, making for 12 altogether. I think this is one of the most important positions on the KCPD, as these officers serve as the points of contact for all neighborhood concerns.

Become more efficient and effective through partnerships- We are working to get social workers assigned to each patrol division in the city. We started this last year when I commanded Central Patrol Division, and our social worker addressed numerous social problems that had evolved into public safety issues, from unruly gatherings of youth on the Plaza to neighborhood disputes. She has been able to step in and resolve things in ways law enforcement could not, and I am certain this would be beneficial city-wide.

I’ve also spent my first week addressing staffing issues. We need to get more call-takers and dispatchers in our 911 Call Center, and we need to get more patrol officers on the streets as soon as possible. They are the heart of what we do as police.

So in the past week, I’ve visited employees in many units around the department. Some were the officers in Central and East Patrol Divisions, and I paid two visits to our Communications Unit to let them know that we are working to get more quality personnel hired to reduce their workloads and improve service to the people of Kansas City. Our patrol officers and communications professionals should know that their hard work is so appreciated and vital, and I am supporting them during these challenging times.

I’ve also been to multiple crime scenes and several protest events. It is very difficult emotionally, but I will continue to be out at crime scenes to see how our people are responding, and if we are doing the most we possibly can to get witnesses to come forward and send the right message to victims’ loved ones and bystanders. I also hope to continue to grow my understanding of what leads to these tragedies and to support the hard-working KCPD members who respond to these incidents. I also will be at demonstrations and events because I’d like to hear the community’s concerns and be accessible.

My first week as Chief of Police has certainly been eventful, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I look forward to serving you.

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org. 

Officer-involved shootings, from training to investigation

With officer-involved shootings in the national spotlight the last few years, I want to share how the members of the Kansas City Police Department train to deal with potential threats and how to avoid them, what happens if a shooting does take place, what’s made public and what isn’t, and how we will work with the FBI, prosecutors and U.S. Attorney’s office to investigate. 

Training

I’ll start with our training. In the last couple of years, we have developed and implemented ground-breaking training on how to de-escalate situations so we can avoid having to make a shoot/don’t-shoot decision. Police departments from around the nation have contacted us about this training so they could give it to their officers. I discussed this in a post last year about officers’ well-being:

“The instructor of the course, Sergeant Ward Smith, describes the idea well: ‘I can remain in this same position, and I’ll have to use force. But if I use tactics and training and think my way through this, I can pull out of this location and avoid shooting it out with someone.’ This is a change of mindset for many. Throughout the history of law enforcement, we’ve had the idea of ‘never back down, never retreat.’ We are encouraging and training our officers to use critical thinking and problem solving to avoid a situation in which they have to shoot someone to protect themselves. This is easier said than done, because oftentimes situations unfold rapidly, leaving officers seconds or less to make decisions. Although we've stressed critical thinking and problem solving in the past, with Sergeant Smith's training, we’re emphasizing the idea that there may be other options.”

Our training staff developed more training along these same lines this year. Our officers now must qualify on their firearms twice annually. At their first qualifying sessions, they learned about the importance of proximity – both physical and emotional – in preventing the escalation of a situation. This article provides more information about what went into that training.

At their second qualifying session this year, officers are learning how to provide first aid to anyone they might have hurt (also discussed in the above linked article). A big part of this is determining whether a situation is stable and if an armed subject still poses a threat. On many occasions, an injured subject will fall to the ground still clutching and able to fire a gun. But if this is not the case, our officers are being instructed to provide emergency first aid to anyone injured by police use of force until an ambulance can arrive. We did this in an incident on Aug. 27. The suspect survived.

Even with all the de-escalation, proximity and first aid training in the world, however, officers may be forced to use lethal force against someone, resulting in fatal wounds. No one wants that to happen, but police must protect themselves and others.


Shoot/Don’t Shoot

Recently, a suspect pointed a gun at our officers, and the officers did not shoot. This is not unusual. Kansas City Missouri Police encounter shoot/don’t shoot scenarios often, and they make split-second, life-or-death decisions in those situations with varying outcomes. No situation is the same. Although the officers in the most recent incident did not shoot, they would have been legally justified if they did. The suspect was threatening their lives by pointing an assault rifle at them. Based on their training and experience, other officers might have chosen to shoot, and they still would have responded to the threat appropriately, according to the law and our department’s policy.

No officer ever wants to take a life, and we are training to avoid such situations whenever possible. But if an officer or resident’s life is threatened, we must respond to protect ourselves and others.


The Investigation

If an officer-involved shooting does take place, several things happen to ensure a thorough investigation, beginning at the scene of the incident. Multiple people respond to the scene of an officer-involved shooting, including the county prosecutor or someone from his or her office, our lead legal adviser, the commander of the Internal Affairs Unit, crime scene investigators, usually myself and the police shooting team, among others. Nothing is done in a vacuum.

The police shooting team is a squad of specialized detectives charged with preparing the investigative case file that will go to the prosecutor. As with any other shooting case, they collect victim and witness statements, gather evidence and present their findings to the prosecutor. After submission to the prosecutor’s office for their review on whether charges are warranted against the officer, the case file also is reviewed by Internal Affairs, our Notable Events Review Panel, training staff and commanders. There are multiple checks and balances to ensure the investigation is fair and unbiased. It also provides opportunity for analysis on whether additional training is warranted.

We made an even bigger step toward transparency and independent investigation of officer-involved shootings last December when we announced an unprecedented memorandum of understanding between our department, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. We already were doing everything covered by the MOU, but this memorandum formalized our procedures.

I have wanted to put this agreement in writing since I became Chief of Police. I initiated the drafting of this MOU and am pleased with the transparency and confidence it provides to other segments of our community.

U.S. Attorney Tammy Dickinson explained the agreement at a press conference on Dec. 9, 2015. The agreement proactively addresses allegations of the excessive use of force by a KCPD officer, marking an extraordinary partnership between local and federal law enforcement. As soon as there is a notification of such an allegation, the matter can referred to the FBI to make an unbiased assessment.

U.S. Attorney Dickinson explained the rest of the process:

“In some cases, the FBI may determine that a federal civil rights investigation is warranted and refer the matter to my office. In other cases, the FBI may determine that a state criminal investigation is warranted and refer the matter to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, or the FBI may determine that police officers acted lawfully and appropriately, and no further investigation is warranted.

“Whatever the outcome, the public can rest assured that any and all allegations of excessive use of force by KCPD officers are being fairly investigated and justly resolved.”


What Is and Isn’t Public

In terms of public accessibility, a police shooting investigative case file is treated like any other investigative case file. No part of it is made public until the case is fully adjudicated. We don’t release the name of any suspect until he or she is charged. Police officers involved in a shooting are treated the same way: their names aren’t released unless they are charged with a crime in a court of law.

And just as we would not release video evidence in any other shooting case to protect the integrity of the investigation, we do not release police dash-cam or any other video evidence in an officer-involved shooting case until it is adjudicated and closed.

In fact, the Missouri Legislature nearly unanimously passed a bill this year restricting public access to police video, and Gov. Jay Nixon signed it into law. The measure blocks the public from accessing footage recorded by body-worn cameras or police dash-cam while investigations are ongoing. Once an investigation is over, any footage recorded inside a home, school or medical facility remains largely off-limits.

Let me be clear that no officer wants to be put in a situation in which he or she must decide to shoot someone. But suspects do threaten the lives of officers, and officers must employ their training and experience to decide how to best protect themselves and others. Sometimes this means they must fire their service weapon to stop the threat.

I take pride in how well-trained our officers are and am confident they have received some of the most cutting edge instruction in the country on how to navigate a possible shoot/no-shoot situation. I also am confident in the integrity and accuracy of our investigative processes. Multiple levels of review – both internally and by the FBI and U.S. Attorney – assure our community that the actions of any KCPD officer involved in a shooting are comprehensively reviewed for adherence to the law and department policy. The people of Kansas City deserve nothing less.

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org.

  

Bill would harm federal partnerships that reduce violent crime

Yesterday, I joined Mayor Sly James, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and Richard Callahan, U.S. District Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, in Jefferson City to speak out against a bill pending in the Missouri Legislature that seeks to nullify federal gun laws. I posted the mayors’ piece on this blog Monday.

I want to make clear that I support the Second Amendment, and I support the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. But parts of this legislation, dubbed “The Second Amendment Preservation Act,” do little to support the rights of lawful gun owners. Instead, it hinders some of the best tools we in municipal law enforecement have – federal partnerships – to reduce violent crime.

This bill would make it against the law for our officers to work with federal agents to enforce gun laws. Below are just some of the federal partnerships and programs in which we engage to fight violent crime, and they all would be in jeopardy if the Missouri General Assembly passes this legislation.

Last year, Kansas City Police worked with our federal partners to get 132 violent criminals off the street with federal felon in possession of firearms cases as part of Project Ceasefire. We also recovered 204 illegal weapons. In the first quarter of this year, we’ve arrested 34 felons in possession of firearms and recovered 66 illegal firearms. The primary elements of Operation Ceasefire are stopping illicit firearms traffickers and harsh federal prison sentences that give gang members and other criminals a strong deterrent to gun violence. House Bill 1439 puts this incredibly successful program and the safety of our residents in jeopardy.

Twenty KCPD detectives are deputized by federal agencies to enforce federal gun laws.

Our Career Criminal Squad alone has two FBI agents, two ATF agents, five U.S. Deputy Marshals, and one Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent. This Squad is one of the best in the nation at tracking down violent criminals, having arrested more than 200 federal fugitives in the last eight years. The majority of those fugitives have committed violent crimes with firearms. Again, House Bill 1439 would likely dismantle this Squad.

Last year, our Gang Squads arrested 21 violent gang members with the assistance of federal partners. They were charged on hundreds of federal counts – many of them weapons charges. So far this year, nine gang members have been arrested and charged with 66 federal counts. If HB 1439 were to pass, we could not continue this kind of enforcement, and gang activity would undoubtedly increase in Kansas City.

A total of 20 federal agents from the ATF, DEA, FBI, U.S. Marshals and ICE are directly assigned to KCPD squads and regional task forces that investigate violent crimes and drug trafficking organizations. These cases involve large amounts of weapons offenses.

Our Kansas City No Violence Alliance, KC NoVA, has been a remarkably successful partnership between local, state and federal law enforcement, prosecutors, and social services. It’s a focused deterrence program that targets our city’s most violent offenders while offering services to those on the fringes of criminal networks. It has taken murderers off the streets and given assistance ranging from literacy courses to substance abuse treatment to nearly 100 people. But it is built on partnerships with federal law enforcement agencies and prosecutors who enforce gun laws.

Working with federal partners to enforce gun laws is one of the most effective tools in our toolbox for preventing violent crime and homicides. I hope we can continue to do so.

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org.