KCPD Creates New Community Engagement Division

Between our police officers and civilian employees, KCPD has nearly 1,700 department members who serve Kansas City every day and make it a better place to live.

I am proud of this department.

Still, we can be better. We can serve better. And that is why I have authorized the creation of a new Community Engagement Division effective Dec. 11.

This division will better utilize the people and resources that already exist to contribute to Kansas City’s well-being while still working out of individual patrol divisions. It will unify services we provide that once functioned within their own silos. Now, they will be intertwined, helping us communicate better and streamline resources. This will ultimately provide better service to our residents and businesses.

I have selected Major Kari Thompson to lead the new Community Engagement Division. Thompson, who was most recently the major at East Patrol Division, will oversee the following:

KCPD’s Social Workers

KCPD’s Community Interaction Officers (CIOs)

KCPD’s Crisis Intervention Team (CITs)

KCPD’s Crime-Free Multi-Housing Officers (CFMH)

KCPD’s Chaplains

KCPD’s newest LGTBQ+ Liaison Officer

Our officers already engage with our community each day. Yet this new division is here to show and remind residents that we’re making the effort to strengthen our community bonds and improve all our relationships.

Our CIT officers are experts at serving people with mental illnesses, working hand-in-hand with mental health liaisons at treatment centers. Our social workers connect those in need with resources when law enforcement is not necessary. Our CFMH officers work with landlords and tenants at rental properties to reduce crime and create safer neighborhoods. In countless ways, the Community Engagement Division will meet people where they are with care and concern. Moving forward, they’ll do all of this united with a deliberate focus and guidance.

I look forward to watching this new division serve Kansas City. It will improve our efficiency to ultimately better serve the needs of our great city.

Social workers belong in law enforcement but cannot replace officers

In the last three weeks, two social workers have been killed in the line of duty. On Nov. 30, a man in Seattle stabbed his caseworker, Kristin Benson, to death. On Dec. 2, a man in Melbourne, Florida, shot and killed Travis Knight, a social worker with whom the suspect had worked at a mental health treatment facility. This also happened to a Kansas City-area social worker in 2004. A 17-year-old in Johnson County attacked his mental health social worker, Teri Zenner, with a knife and chainsaw when she did a home visit in 2004. She died at the scene.

Social work is a dangerous profession. A 2017 CBS News article named it the 20^th most deadly job in America, with 1 death per 100,000. (Police and firefighters ranked at No. 15, with 6.2 deaths per 100,000.) But social work also is a very important profession. So much so that we brought them onto the police department to be assigned to work alongside police officers beginning in late 2017. As far as I know, we were the first police department in the United States to employ full-time social workers who work from officer referrals. Before that, our CIT officers were borrowing mental health social workers to come along on calls with them whenever they could.

Social work absolutely has a place in law enforcement, but it cannot replace law enforcement, as many people have demanded this year. People who are in mental health or substance abuse crisis are not stable. They’re not always dangerous, but they can be. The criminal justice system is not the way to treat people with mental illness, but it does work to ensure people’s safety.

An example one of our social workers cites is when she got called along with officers to a woman wearing only a sundress on a freezing January day, walking along a sidewalk with children who also were not dressed appropriately for the weather. That sounds like the perfect call for a social worker, right? With officers nearby, our social worker approached the woman. She talked to the woman and her children, and found out they had been walking in the cold for more than 18 hours non-stop. A toddler in a stroller and none of the other children nor the woman had eaten or drank for that time. The woman was on PCP. After initially talking peacefully to our social worker, the woman became violent, which is not uncommon for users of that drug. Thankfully, the officers were there to step in to stop the woman and protect the social worker and the woman’s own children. The social worker, in turn, was able to get resources for the family immediately.

Many issues come to the attention of police that no amount of enforcement will solve. Social workers have the training, time and resources to address issues police can’t. Our social workers helped us address issues with unruly youth on the Country Club Plaza – an issue we’d tried for years to enforce our way out of with limited success. They’ve gotten resources for families involved in feuds that could have escalated into violence, but with their intervention, did not. They’ve helped individuals contemplating suicide get mental health treatment. They’ve gotten housing for the homeless. Desperate people do desperate things, and our social service workers do an amazing job helping reduce that desperation and the criminal acts that might arise from it.

The reason it works so well is that the police and social workers work together. With police by their sides, the social workers have the luxury of knowing they can safely assist unstable individuals with resources to bring them to stability. And with social workers by their sides, police have the resources to solve what once were hopeless situations. Social workers and cops work better together.

Imagine what would have happened to our social worker after the mother on PCP turned violent. The social worker likely would have been attacked, injured or worse. The mother also presented a safety threat to her own children. Having the police there protected everyone. The social worker, in turn, helped police get care and assistance for the children right away.

I believe this law enforcement-social work partnership is the future of policing in America, and I’m glad we were at the forefront. It has led to very desirable outcomes in Kansas City, and not a single social worker has been injured. It is irresponsible to send untrained, unarmed social workers out to deal with volatile and potentially violent individuals. No call is ever “routine.” But it makes a world of sense to put their specialized training to work alongside law enforcement so they can stay safe while effecting the kind of change police cannot.

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KCPD Highlights Service Aspects of Policing

There have been many calls lately to fundamentally shift the way policing is done in America. Several of these demands are about responding to situations of people in crisis without enforcement. I couldn’t agree more, which is why we’ve pioneered programs like dedicated social workers and a Crisis Intervention Team Squad.

As far as I know, we were the first police department in America to employ social workers. For two years now, a social service worker has been assigned to each of our six patrol division stations. 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. They’ve assisted with drug treatment. And ultimately, they’ve gotten residents the resources they need to be successful and reduced the need for law enforcement involvement. In 2019, KCPD social workers assisted more than 1,820 people.

The social workers also have done a great deal with youth in Kansas City. They have helped resolve neighborhood feuds that originated with youth and would have turned violent without the social workers’ intervention. We deployed them to the Country Club Plaza, which was having a problem with unsupervised teenagers gathering and causing violence and property destruction. With surveys, education and a diversion program, the social workers were able to mostly resolve an issue we had spent nearly a decade unsuccessfully trying to enforce our way out of.

In recent weeks, when so many people were out of work during the COVID-19 shut-down, our social workers partnered with community resources to ensure some of the most vulnerable people in our community had food. Their efforts led to 775 people a day being fed for a month. They were unable to carry out their regular duties because of the pandemic, but they saw the needs and created a whole new way to serve.

Law enforcement also has become the default responders to those in mental health and substance abuse crisis. That’s why I thought it was imperative that all patrol officers who weren’t already Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) certified undergo mental health awareness training. This covers the CIT basics and responding to someone in crisis.

Several years ago, however, we realized how important it was to have a squad of CIT officers dedicated to serving and following up with members of our community with mental illness who came to the attention of law enforcement. They work hand-in-hand with community mental health liaisons (social workers from mental health treatment providers). In the last year, this squad responded to help 212 people who wanted to die by suicide. With their community mental health liaisons, they made 98 visits to people who needed treatment. They also conducted 132 follow-up visits in addition to that. They made 40 visits to homeless camps to help residents get treatment and housing.

They also conducted extensive mental health awareness and de-escalation training for our KCPD officers and other area law enforcement, as well as community and panel presentations.

Thanks to our CIT squad and social workers, thousands of members of our community got the help they really needed instead of being needlessly thrown into the criminal justice system or having a negative counter with law enforcement.

KCPD has been at the forefront of these alternative responses. I presented about our social worker program at the Major Cities Chiefs Association meeting last fall, where the leaders of several other departments showed interest in implementing something similar.

We are continually evaluating our practices and responses to determine what will best serve our community and keep Kansas City safe. The social workers and CIT Squad are a result of that evaluation. That analysis is not over. We will keep looking for places to improve and enhance our service to Kansas City.

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org.    

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 

KCPD's unique governance model serves Kansas City well

The people of Kansas City have a police department they should be very proud of, and many are. We’ve innovated in the areas of social workers and community outreach through additional Community Interaction Officers. We professionally handle dozens of large events every year, from the airshow to the Plaza Lighting Ceremony. We are the largest law enforcement agency in six states and are often looked to as leaders in the Midwest and nationally. This police department strives to make Kansas City a great place for everyone to live, work and play. A well-functioning police department doesn’t happen by accident. It’s because of a group of dedicated men and women who have served on the Kansas City Missouri Board of Police Commissioners through the years. They have invested the time and effort to make sure this city has a police department that is a national model.

Many residents may not even recognize this. What they will recognize is the work ethic, professionalism and dedication that the men and women of the KCPD give every day under the oversight of the Board of Police Commissioners.

As it does every few years, the question of “local control” of the Kansas City Missouri Police Department has resurfaced. The KCPD is governed by a Board of Police Commissioners appointed by the Governor of Missouri and confirmed by the State Senate. They all are residents of Kansas City, Mo. The elected mayor of Kansas City also has a seat on the Board. That’s why the issue at hand isn’t really “local control” but local political control. The Kansas City Council funds the Department, according to state statute. We have operated this way since 1939, when rampant corruption caused the state to take control of the department.

Many say that model is outdated. We believe, however, that it has served the people of Kansas City well for 80 years and will continue to do so. When I attend national conferences, I am pleased to hear about the reputation of the KCPD among other agencies. We are known nationwide as leaders in everything from data-led policing to de-escalation training to social services. We have not experienced the strained community relationships or large-scale scandals other major-city departments have. That’s not by accident. Maybe it’s because of the members of our community who sit on our oversight board.

Under our current governance model, we are agile and adaptable. We can focus resources where they are needed most without being slowed by politics or bureaucracy. We can quickly respond to the needs of neighborhoods and businesses because we aren’t beholden to any particular elected official.

That is not to say that we are not responsive to City Hall. We have a commander assigned full-time to work with city staff and council members. We work together closely to address crime issues in our city. A great example of this is the money the City allocated to boost the reward money for homicide tips leading to an arrest to $25,000 through the Crime Stoppers TIPS Hotline.

State statute mandates that the City allocate at least 20% of its general fund to the police department. For many years, the City has provided more than 20%, and for that, we and the residents of Kansas City should be grateful. We also have consolidated many functions with city staff, most recently information technology. Our great working relationship results in a prudent use of taxpayer dollars for public safety.

The most common argument I hear against our governance model is that we are the only one in the nation who has it. Being unique is not a negative thing. Perhaps we should be seen as the leader after which other agencies should model themselves. Look out a little farther, however, and you’ll see that we’re not that different. The majority of municipal Canadian police departments are overseen by civilian boards of police commissioners, just like KCPD’s. Police are governed this way in most major Canadian cities, including Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton and Ottawa.

I also hear that our unique system of governance must somehow be the source of the stubborn homicide rate in our city. The other nine cities on the list of the nation’s 10 Most Dangerous Cities have local political control, and that has done nothing to abate the violence in their communities. Many of those cities also have experienced unrest that we haven’t.

We have a Board of Police Commissioners who can focus entirely upon governing the police department. City Councilmembers have many other important functions to oversee, from the airport to street maintenance to sewers. We are fortunate to have an oversight board in which our department is their sole priority. They can review policies and procedures at length. They also are open to public input and have requested it on many occasions, like during the last selection process for Chief of Police. Every month, the Board meets to publicly go over the department’s finances, policies and other items, as well as take comments from the community. You would be hard-pressed to find another City department that gets this level of public scrutiny on a monthly basis.

The Kansas City Missouri Police Department’s form of governance is unique, but that should be seen as a strength, not a weakness. It has allowed our department to function professionally, transparently and respectably for 80 years and hopefully for many more to come. For these reasons and many more, the people of Kansas City should champion the department’s current governance model.

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org. 

Stopping career criminals who threaten deportation to keep victims silent

Recently, the Kansas City Missouri Police Department’s interaction with immigrants has come into question. Below is a great example of how KCPD handles crime issues, including those involving immigrant victims. We want to reassure the public that immigrant victims get the same standard of service that anyone else in Kansas City would receive.

We are working to stop a pattern of armed robberies in which the suspects told the victims – mostly older Latino males – not to report the crimes to police because they said officers would call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to have them deported. Not only is that patently false, but the victims’ fear allowed the perpetrators to continue to victimize more and more people. This pattern of crimes started with four or five armed robberies in 2018 and resumed in May of this year, with another four to five cases linked so far.

Police arrested one of the three primary suspects Aug. 20, and he was charged with two counts of armed robbery and two counts of armed criminal action. We anticipate arrests and charges on the other two soon.

As I have said before, KCPD does not enforce immigration laws and never inquires about a victim’s or witness’s documentation. It’s irrelevant to our duty. We would not have known about these crimes were it not for the relationship one of our social service workers built with Hope City, a house of prayer and community center at 24th and Quincy. Crime had escalated around the center earlier this year, so the East Patrol social service worker and a captain began going to Hope City every morning to see what they could do and introduce themselves to staff and volunteers. The initially chilly reception from clients changed when they found out KCPD was there to help. The social service worker helped one woman get a prosthetic leg, giving her the ability to walk again. She got another woman with cancer into medical treatment. She worked with another man to get his identification documentation, and that allowed him to get a job. Crime issues surrounding the area have dropped significantly since KCPD intervention.

The clients talked among themselves, however, about how they had been robbed at gunpoint by three men while they waited in line at Hope City to receive a free meal. The suspects shot one of the victims in the leg last week. But the victims of the prior robberies did not go to police because the suspects had convinced them they would be deported if they did so. That is what made these crimes so heinous to me: not only did the suspects threaten the lives of people to take their meager possessions; they took away the victims’ chance for justice and protection. The suspects knew this would allow them to continue to prey on the immigrant community. The Kansas City Missouri Police Department will not tolerate those actions.

Fortunately, one of the staff members at Hope City told our social service worker what he’d heard about these crimes from clients. That gave police the chance to investigate these cases and stop the suspects who were hurting so many vulnerable individuals. We don’t care where you’re from or how you got here because it is our duty to protect and serve EVERYONE in Kansas City. The Spanish-speaking captain of the Robbery Unit has reached out to many victims to encourage them to participate in the investigation.

These crimes and the fear they incited of KCPD among immigrants started occurring long before the viral video of KCPD responding to ICE’s request for assistance during an arrest. Since that video, we have spent a great deal of time out in communities assuring residents that nothing has changed with KCPD’s approach to immigration. We do not ask about it and have no intention to start.

In addition to our many community meetings, some of our Spanish-speaking officers will soon be going onto local Spanish-language radio stations to explain KCPD’s policy and practice regarding immigration. A community that does not trust police is vulnerable to violent crime. What happened to the victims of the armed robbers at 24th and Quincy is the worst-case scenario of that. We don’t ever want that to happen again. 

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org. 

Major changes underway to fight against violent gun crimes in Kansas City

It’s no stretch to say violent crime in Kansas City, particularly gun crime, is far too high. Reducing that has been my top priority as Chief, and it’s a top priority for just about everyone else in law enforcement here and our partners in the local and federal government. More than anyone else, I also know it’s a top priority for our community.

I wanted to outline some of the changes we’ve made – along with our partners – to work with the community to prevent and solve violent crime.

Reward increase for homicide tips

One of the things I’m most excited about is the increase in the anonymous reward amount for successful homicide tips from $10,000 to $25,000 through Greater Kansas City Crime Stoppers. This increase will be accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign to ensure everyone knows about it, especially in the areas where the most violent crime occurs. The City of Kansas City is making a substantial investment in this effort.

An amount like $25,000 can be life-changing for some, and our hope is that it will lead to justice for the families of murder victims. Beyond that, we believe it will have a deterrent effect. Maybe bringing a gun to settle an argument isn’t such a good idea with an incentive of $25,000 motivating those with information to come forward.

The population of Omaha, Neb., is only slightly smaller than Kansas City’s. Omaha has been offering a $25,000 reward for successful homicide tips for some time. Their city had only 20 homicides last year. Kansas City had 138. Reward money may not be the only factor, but it does appear to impact violent crime in Omaha.

We have proof more reward money leads to more tips. The reward for successful anonymous tips for Kansas City, Mo., homicides increased from $2,000 to $5,000 in November 2017, and then went up to $10,000 in April 2018. Crime Stoppers saw a 26% increase in homicide tips in the year those changes occurred. And though the increased reward was only applicable to KCMO homicides, the tips for homicide cases went up across the board for the whole metro area. Those increased tips meant more than double the average amount of homicides cleared through anonymous tips in the greater Kansas City area.

Changing the focus of Kansas City No Violence Alliance (KC NoVA)

After extensive evaluation, KC NoVA switched its enforcement strategy in May 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 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.  NoVA accomplished its initial goal of reducing group-related violence. Since NoVA went into full effect in 2014, group-related homicides have dropped from 64% of all of our homicides to 37% of homicides. But homicides 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.

The social services component of KC NoVA will continue to help individuals find better futures that don’t involve crime or violence.

Stolen guns hurt everyone

We don’t just want to solve crimes after they happen. We want to prevent them from taking place. The Kansas City Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is working with Crime Stoppers and the City of Kansas City to offer  a reward of $500 to $1,000 for information regarding stolen guns and straw purchasers (guns purchased on behalf of someone who cannot legally possess a firearm, usually a felon).  

Guns are finding their way into crime through straw purchase, theft from vehicles, residential burglaries and thefts from gun shops. The ATF and the United States Attorney’s Office have an excellent record of bringing to justice those who break into area guns stores; however, those guns – like any stolen guns – hit the streets very quickly. We need the public’s help to find those guns, get them off of the streets BEFORE they can be used in crime, and hold those responsible for putting these guns on the streets, accountable. 

We believe the $500 to $1,000 reward for information leading to stolen guns, straw purchasers, and others using firearms illegally will help achieve those goals.

Crime Gun Intelligence Center

Since last fall, the Crime Gun Intelligence Center has been working to analyze all gun crimes in Kansas City and link them forensically. The Center is a task force composed of KCPD detectives, officers from the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department and ATF agents all working in the same location. Just three years ago, it took nine to 12 months to get forensic analysis back on some gun crimes. Thanks to a federal grant that led to the Crime Gun Intelligence Center, this now happens in 24 to 48 hours.

The forensic linking is a tool to guide detectives in a direction. Detectives still have to put the pieces together. Firearms change hands quickly, especially after a gun crime occurs, but we have better tools than ever now to link guns to crimes, which leads us to linking people to crimes.

Community Outreach

As I have previously mentioned, we added social workers at each of our six patrol division stations and doubled the number of Community Interaction Officers at each station. The intent of this was to address a lot of issues before they escalated into violence. The social workers link people to resources who might otherwise turn to crime to meet their needs. They are particularly focused on youth issues.

Community Interaction Officers address long-term neighborhood issues. They also work to strengthen communities through block watch programs, crime prevention through environmental design and building relationships with the police department. Empowered, connected, organized neighborhoods are the greatest crime deterrent our city has.

Because ultimately, we can have all the rewards and programs in the world, but little will change without the community’s involvement. You are the best crime-fighting resource we have, and we are honored to protect and serve alongside you.    

Our city is tired of the senseless violence that has altered so many lives. Today, this police department and our many partners are sending a clear message that the illegal and senseless use of firearms must stop. As a city, we can do better and we must. Our message to our great city is that everyone has an opportunity to reduce violence. If you know violence is about to happen, speak out. If you know someone who has been involved in violent acts, speak out. We do not have to accept violence!

Social workers coming to all patrol divisions

The Kansas City Missouri Police Department has secured funding to embed a social worker at all six of our patrol division stations.

The Hall Family Foundation is providing $640,000, and the City of Kansas City is matching that with $470,000 to fund six social workers and a program coordinator for the next three years. The social workers’ primary function is to provide support and act as a resource for officers through community outreach, support and service referrals.

As I said in an earlier post, 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.

A board member of the Police Foundation of Kansas City had a connection to a board member of the Hall Family Foundation. Through that, our current social worker, Gina English, and I were able to present the police department’s proposal. We are so glad the Hall Family Foundation chose to fund this project and that the City realized its worth and is providing matching funding. I truly believe this will have a significant impact on crime in our community, and I’m excited to see what this public-private partnership can accomplish.

We aim to have the social workers in place by early March. They will work out of patrol division stations, attend weekly crime meetings and communicate regularly with officers about residents in need of assistance, especially early intervention for at-risk youth.

The goals of the social worker program are to:

1. Cultivate a shared mission for service providers to work together, decreasing gaps in services and strengthening each other’s ability to influence people who need help and act as a safeguard in times of crisis.
   
2. Provide prevention support for youth identified as mid-level risk due to past police contact, criminal activity or escalation in crime type.
   
3. Increase the public’s overall satisfaction with police by offering another level of customer service and problem-solving actions to the Police Department. 

As I’ve said, 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 those very issues are what create crime problems in our community. Social workers can address such issues in a way that brings lasting, positive change. For example, Gina English, the social worker who pioneered our program at Central Patrol Division, did more to stop the problem of youth congregating on the Country Club Plaza and becoming destructive and violent than police ever could. She really talked to the teens there and then created a diversion and citizenship program for them.

Gina will serve as the coordinator for the expanded program. The new social workers will be expected to continue her work with juveniles in detention and in Municipal Court as well as building a diverse network of community resources. They also always must maintain KCPD’s duty to protect and serve the entire community, placing public safety above all.

A job description for these contract positions will be posted soon. In the meantime, interested persons with a degree in social work can e-mail gina.english@kcpd.org.

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org. 

It takes a community

Co-authored by Mayor Sly James and Chief Smith

If you’re like both of us, you look at Kansas City’s crime statistics and wince. Maybe you get angry. Maybe you want someone or something to blame. We get it. We do, too.

But crime is complex. Criminal behavior usually isn’t driven by just one thing, and we won’t be able to bring down crime in our city with quick fixes. We believe 2018 can be the year that our neighborhoods see true relief from violence, but it will take more than anything the police or the city government alone can provide. It will take you. We need each Kansas Citian to prioritize crime reduction in our community. There is no substitute for an engaged citizenry when it comes to fighting crime.

The men and women of law enforcement rely on tips and information from members of our community to help solve crimes. If you see something, hear something or know something, do something. Both of us are powerless to help make our neighborhoods safer without your help. To that end, KCPD recently increased the TIPS hotline reward to $5,000.

While police and city government can’t fix the crime problem alone, we are doing a great deal to address it. The Kansas City No Violence Alliance (KC NoVA) has been working hard to stop the recent spate of homicides. In fact, the percentage of homicides resulting from group-related violence – KC NoVA’s focus – has dropped steadily since the group started in 2013. However, overall homicide numbers are still going up, and we’re trying a number of things to stop that.

KC NoVA is bringing all of our city’s key players to the table to address the very small percentage of people who are responsible for a lot of the violence in Kansas City. Every morning, representatives from a host of agencies meet in person and by conference call to talk about what crime happened in the last 24 hours and any intelligence that was developed. The meeting is led by KCPD’s Gang Intelligence Unit and includes a variety of internal units at the KCPD as well as our local, state and federal partners. These heavy hitters work together every day to identify the most dangerous people in our community and how we can best arrest and prosecute them.

We also work to rehabilitate those who want to leave a life of crime. NoVA client advocates presently work with more than 100 people who want to avoid criminal behavior and be productive members of society. Advocates provide everything from conflict resolution skills to substance abuse treatment to job training. NoVA partners also have made nearly 100 visits to individuals who were incarcerated as the result of NoVA enforcement and worked with them to prepare for a law-abiding life on the outside. It’s still early, but their rate of recidivism appears to be significantly lower than average.

The Ruskin area in south Kansas City had recently experienced an elevated level of violent crime and quality of life issues. NoVA partners knocked on 697 homes in the Ruskin Heights neighborhood this past year to inform hundreds of families that police presence would be increasing, violence would not be tolerated and resources were available to help families get their loved ones back on the straight and narrow. The Violent Crimes Enforcement Division along with our NoVA partners is working with community members to identify specific neighborhood problems and concerns. We have already observed a reduction in the criminal activity occurring. Each year, we examined the date range of August through December. We found that crime categories, including aggravated assault, domestic violence, armed robbery, and strong-arm robbery, collectively increased from 2014 through 2016. Crime rose 56 percent between 2014 and 2015 and another 11 percent between 2015 and 2016. However, data show a 10 percent decrease for the same date range in 2017 when compared to 2016. Police will continue to work with City Codes Enforcement Officers to address blighted homes. The goal is to improve the neighborhood, reduce criminal activity and restore resident satisfaction. We intend to replicate this geographical targeted policing into other areas of the city.

Teens in Transition is another program of KC NoVA. Funded by the offices of the Mayor and Jackson County Prosecutor, this program has brought 40 teens at risk for violence together each of the past three summers. Led by Michael Toombs of Arts Tech, they learn conflict resolution skills, undergo job training and art therapy. The whole time, KCPD’s school resource officers work alongside the teens to build relationships and trust. The kids who graduate from the program have significantly fewer negative contacts with police than they did before they started.

You’ll notice many of these crime-fighting efforts are less about going out and arresting people and more about giving them the resources they need to prevent them from turning to crime. One way KCPD is doing that is through a social worker embedded at Central Patrol Division. Here’s one great example: For years, officers have tried to enforce away issues with teens congregating on the Country Club Plaza in the summer and violating laws. This past summer, the social worker, Gina English, went to the Plaza and surveyed the kids about why they were there. After some citations for curfew violation the initial weekend the summer curfew went into effect, the problems on the Plaza decreased that summer. Gina identified the issues that drove idle youth to congregating and breaking laws, and those underlying issues were addressed by her social work and the responsible citizenship classes Gina taught to the children and parents who’d been cited for curfew violations. It was more effective than anything police had done to address the problem. To read more about what social work is accomplishing in Central Patrol Division, check out Chief Smith’s blog from last week. Like the client advocates at KC NoVA, social work is proving to be an innovative solution to public safety problems.

We’re about to see even more of this happen in Kansas City. The Police Department has just secured funding to embed a social worker at all six patrol division stations. More information on that will be forthcoming.

The way the police department shares and acts on crime information also has changed in a way that increases accountability. A sergeant skilled at data and intelligence analysis provides both the patrol divisions and Chief Smith with detailed weekly crime data and maps, pointing out patterns, recent parolees and concerning issues that need follow-up. Every week, officers and commanders assigned to each of the city’s six patrol divisions meet to discuss crime issues and neighborhood concerns in their area. Then every Wednesday, the commanders report how they’re working within their divisions to address those issues. They also discuss how they can partner with other internal divisions like Violent Crimes, Violent Crimes Enforcement, Special Operations, Traffic and Homeland Security and bring to bear the resources of those specialized units to stop the crime.

We understand the need for our law enforcement community to look like, and to understand, the people who live in our neighborhoods. We’re both committed to increasing the diversity of our police force. There is a KCPD recruitment fair from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. this Saturday, Jan. 13, at the Hillcrest Community Center, 10401 Hillcrest Rd. Department recruiters will be on site taking information from people interested in serving with KCPD and answering questions about employment. We’d love for community members from a wide variety of backgrounds to come apply.

Striving for a diverse workforce is nothing new for KCPD, and it’s something we are always trying to enhance. In 2017, KCPD was out recruiting everywhere from urban core high schools and churches to the Bosnian Community Picnic to LGBT festivals to universities and military bases. Among a host of other diversity recruitment initiatives, KCPD has been working with Kansas City Public Schools to build a program for interested students to learn about law enforcement with the goal of having them eventually join the department. In the coming months, KCPD will be operating a career center at the Manual Career and Technical Center in downtown. The purpose is to develop and mentor young people so those students looking for jobs after they graduate from high school can pass the background examination and go into civilian positions on the KCPD (such as desk clerks, building maintenance and other spots) until they reach the age of 21 and can become police officers. KCPD also is implementing a summer youth police academy for 12- to 15-year-olds in partnership with the Parks Department. The goal is for urban core youth to have a continuum of exposure to and mentoring by police from middle school to graduation. Those young people grew up in and understand the neighborhoods that are most in need of police presence, and we need them in the department.

That’s just some of what we’re doing in terms of internal changes in working with our community and law enforcement partners to address crime in 2018. We have the bold goal of getting Kansas City off the 10 Most Dangerous Cities list and look forward to what contributions our residents can make in helping us achieve that.

We believe all Kansas Citians deserve to live in a safe and healthy environment. It takes a community to make it possible. When we work together as a community, we have the capacity to solve our city’s most complex issues. Let’s come together now.

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 

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.