Press Release:
Kansas City, Missouri
– The Kansas City,
Missouri Police Department will begin enforcing the City’s new primary seat
belt ordinance today the first day of the two-week nationwide
“Click It or Ticket” campaign. The ordinance
passed the City Council in early April and the department has been conducting a
public information campaign since then to make citizens aware of the change. This week, officers will be handing out
informational pamphlets to motorists at major intersections around the city and
to those that are stopped for traffic violations.
The new primary ordinance will allow
police officers to stop a vehicle solely for lack of seat belt use by the
driver or any front-seat passenger.
Before, another violation was needed to be able to enforce the secondary
ordinance. The new fine for a seat belt
violation is $50.00, up from the previous $10.00.
“This is the perfect time for this new
ordinance to go into effect,” said Sgt. Grant Ruark of the Traffic
Division. “We believe this will make a
significant difference in our ability to raise the seat belt usage rate in our
city. Our rate of 79% is well below the
national average of 86% and with nearly seven out of ten victims of fatality
accidents in a passenger vehicle being unbuckled, something had to be done. We hope that our citizens will buckle up and
“Arrive Alive.”
Traffic officers will be conducting
overtime enforcement in addition to their regular duties during the “Click It
or Ticket” mobilization which ends June 2nd.
For more information on Missouri seat belt
usage, visit www.saveMolives.com
Send Comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org
PRESS RELEASE:
Kansas City residents will be able to drop off their unwanted prescription and over-the-counter drugs all over Kansas City on Sept. 29.
Kansas City Police are partnering with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to present the nationwide Take Back Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29. The drop-off locations will be:
• MainCor, 3215 Main St.
• CVS, 11124 Holmes
• Price Chopper, 8430 Wornall Road
• Hen House, 6238 N. Chatham Rd.
• Walgreens, 5400 Independence Ave.
There also are permanent drop-off locations in the lobbies of two Kansas City Police stations:
• Shoal Creek Patrol Division, 6801 NE Pleasant Valley Rd
• North Patrol Division, 1001 NW Barry Road
Residents can drop off the drugs anonymously with no questions asked. With the exception of needles, all expired, unused or unwanted medicines – prescription or over-the-counter – can be turned in. The Take Back intends to combat prescription drug abuse and dispose of the drugs in an environmentally responsible way. The drugs will be incinerated, keeping them away from those who would abuse them and out of the water supply and away from wildlife. Last year, KCPD collected nearly 2,000 pounds of drugs at Take Back events.
For more information about the nationwide Take Back Day, go to www.justice.gov/dea.
PRESS RELEASE:
The Kansas City Police security plan for the Major League Baseball All Star Game has received a military review from people who instruct U.S. Army officers how to review battle plans.
Instructors and students at the University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies at Fort Leavenworth volunteered to analyze the plan and met Thursday with members of KCPD, Kansas City Fire and Emergency Management Departments, the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium to report their findings in a process called “Red Teaming.”
“We wanted them to find the things we didn’t think of and point out the vulnerabilities in the plan,” Major Rich Lockhart said.
The Red Team concept arose about six years ago from lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Retired Army Col. Steve Rotkoff, deputy director of the University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies at Fort Leavenworth. The Army found groupthink had taken over in a lot of situations, and an outside perspective was needed to really analyze military strategies.
“A Red-Teamer is someone who has been trained, educated and given the tools to serve as an in-house skeptic,” Rotkoff said.
That was exactly what police wanted going into the All Star game, Lockhart said – an outside perspective to find any holes in the security plan.
Five U.S. Army officers – majors and above – in the Red Team Course analyzed the All Star plan. Rotkoff said it was one of the few civilian plans they’ve ever reviewed.
“They confirmed for us this is a solid plan,” Lockhart said. “They made some really good suggestions; like that we should have a no-communications plan in the event radios and cell phones don’t work. We’re going to work on putting that together next week.”
PRESS RELEASE:
The Kansas City Missouri Police Department’s Twitter account now ranks in the top five among large municipal police departments in the United States.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) released the rankings this week. Click to see the full list. Kansas City comes in at No. 5 for municipal law enforcement agencies with 1,000 or more officers, behind Boston, New York City, Baltimore and Seattle. At the time the IACP released the rankings, Kansas City Police had 10,817 followers. They now have more than 11,100.
“Twitter has proved to be an excellent way for us to communicate with the people we serve,” Chief Darryl Forté said.
Live tweeting events – such as last month’s tweet along – have garnered many followers and given them a look behind the scenes of the police department. Another tweet along will take place in the near future.
KCPD shares breaking news and much more at www.twitter.com/kcpolice.
Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org.
PRESS RELEASE:
Get all the excitement of being a Kansas City Police Officer from the safety of your smart phone or computer with KCPD’s first tweet-along Thursday night.
From 8 p.m. to midnight April 26, a member of the department’s Media Unit will ride along with officers in the urban core and tweet everything that happens. The public is invited to follow along at www.twitter.com/kcpolice.
Chief Darryl Forté conceived the idea because he wanted to give the public a better idea of what officers face on a given shift.
“I think showing them first-hand what we do will help us build relationships with the community,” Chief Forté said.
Any information that could endanger someone – such as victims’ names or exact addresses – will not be tweeted.
This is the second of KCPD’s live tweeting events. Police tweeted all 911 calls for one hour in October 2011 to launch the opening of the department’s new 911 Call Center.
PRESS RELEASE:
To get information to the community as quickly as possible, the Kansas City Missouri Police Department is launching a text message alert system with Nixle.
Nixle Connect allows the department to instantly inform residents of current public safety issues via text/SMS, e-mail, Internet posts, and Twitter. The service is provided at no cost to the department, taxpayers, or residents.
Communications from the KCPD will range from emergency alerts such as Amber Alerts and critical incidents to routine day-to-day information such as violent crime suspects being sought, a burglary pattern, a major traffic incident, or other relevant information to residents.
“With Nixle, citizens can be aware of the current safety issues in their neighborhood,” Chief Darryl Forté said. “Informed citizens can be our eyes and ears, helping us solve and prevent crime.”
Kansas City residents can sign up to receive free, real-time safety information by texting their zip code or “KCPD” to 888777 or by visiting www.nixle.com. Once registered, users can customize the types of alerts they wish to receive via text, email, and online. Any information users submit is housed on secure Nixle servers and remains anonymous to police staff.
“Additionally, Kansas City will play host to the 2012 Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Game in July,” continued Forté. “Nixle Connect provides us with a way to communicate with the tens of thousands of baseball fans who will be attending to keep traffic and people flowing as smoothly as possible, as well as a means to deliver any urgent messages should an emergency arise.”
To receive All Star Game-specific messages, text “ALLSTARKC” to 888777.
More than 4,800 government agencies nationwide have adopted Nixle for their means of real-time communications with residents, and more than 700,000 citizens have signed up to take advantage of the service.
“Nixle is an easy, quick and secure mass notification tool for public safety officials to communicate information to the public across multiple channels,” stated Eric Liu, Nixle’s CEO. “Both residents and visitors to Kansas City can benefit greatly from the service.”
Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org.
PRESS RELEASE:
Chief Darryl Forté invites the public to a forum Saturday to meet with various Kansas City Police Department elements and ask questions or voice their concerns.
The forum will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 31 at the Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts, 4747 Flora Ave. The event will be structured so community members can speak one-on-one with commanders and officers as well as Chief Forté. Representatives of multiple KCPD units will be at tables to speak with the public. Some of those units include Homicide, Narcotics and Vice Division, Human Resources Recruiters, and each patrol division station. Residents are invited to ask questions and share their concerns about public safety and quality of life related issues.
Chief Forté also will ask community members who have specific public safety problems they’d like to see addressed to sign a “Community Contract” with the KCPD. This contract will outline the mutually agreed upon action steps to be taken by police and residents to address the issue.
“It says we have a shared responsibility and individual accountability – both police and community members – for resolving problems,” Chief Forté said.
This is the second of Chief Forté’s quarterly community forums since he became chief.
The forum will be in Paseo Academy’s cafeteria. The public should park on the Flora Avenue (west side) of the building and enter through the cafeteria entrance.
PRESS RELEASE:
Seven people have died in six traffic crashes so far in Kansas City this year, and police want to make the public more aware of the causes of these deaths by providing a new, weekly, fatality crash analysis.
The analysis will be posted on KCPD’s web site every Monday on the Traffic Enforcement page.
Similar to the daily homicide analysis posted on the “Crime Stats” page on the department web site, the traffic fatality analysis breaks down the victims of crashes demographically, but it also cites the factors contributing to the crashes and deaths. For example, from Jan. 1 through Feb. 6, 2012, three of the seven victims were not wearing seat belts. Alcohol was a factor in two crashes, and two drivers were driving with revoked or suspended licenses. Excessive speed factored in two crashes, and one was due to a driver violating a traffic signal.
“We’re trying to raise awareness of the causes for fatality accidents,” said Major Rich Lockhart, commander of the Special Operations Division. “We’ve never done this before. We hope that by letting people know on a weekly basis how many fatal crashes we have and what causes them, it will make people think twice. … Most of our fatal crashes are preventable.”
Major Lockhart said the dangerous driving behavior that often leads to fatal crashes can affect anyone, even law-abiding drivers who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s why he urged everyone to wear seat belts, saying it could significantly reduce Kansas City’s traffic fatalities.
Press Release:
Kansas City Police and their local and federal partners went after violent crime suspects in the suburban areas of the city in a special operation that took place Sept. 28 and 29. Police served 13 search warrants and conducted 85 knock-and-talks in south Kansas City and the Northland. The two-day initiative, one day in south Kansas City and the second in the Northland, resulted in numerous arrests and the recovery of guns and narcotics. The initiative also led law enforcement to two marijuana grow operations and the arrest of several individuals involved in an organized shoplifting ring that plagued multiple jurisdictions on both sides of the state line.
The results are:
* 25 warrants cleared
* 25 new arrests
* Narcotics recovered
- 36,354 grams of marijuana
- 5.1 grams of cocaine
- 269.2 grams of K2
- 2.5 grams of pills
- 1 gram of methamphetamine
* 5 firearms
* 10 arrests for prostitution
Local agencies who participated in the initiative include Clay, Jackson and Platte County Prosecutors’ Offices, Platte County Sheriff’s Office and Grandview Police Department. Federal agencies included the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Immigration and Customs Enforcement; U.S. Marshals Service and Drug Enforcement Administration.
