Area-specific violence is being addressed

Some recent acts of violence have prompted inquiries about possible rashes of crime in different parts of our city. I’ve heard concern about the old Northeast and the 18th and Vine entertainment district among other areas, lately. 

Let me assure you that no area of the city is having an abnormal outbreak of violent crime. As I discussed in my previous post, homicides and assaults with a weapon are up this year compared to the record-low last year, but we still remain well below where we have been for the last four decades. All other types of crime in the city are down.

This is not to say we aren’t doing everything we can to prevent and solve crime and make people feel safe. I’ve talked a lot about our prevention efforts on this blog, ranging from the Kansas City No Violence Alliance to deploying extra resources to hot spots. There are so many other things happening. Weekly intelligence-sharing meetings keep everyone in patrol and investigations abreast of the most serious crime trends, suspects and problem areas. We then deploy the necessary resources – from increased police presence to covert operations – to stop the criminal activity. These intel-sharing efforts have gone down to the patrol division level, too. Your local officers work with schools, businesses, prosecutors, non-profits, and most importantly, of course – residents – to identify patterns of crime and ways to prevent them. The officers who work in your neighborhood know the areas experiencing issues, and they usually know who is engaging in criminal behavior. They need your help to further identify those suspects and get them into custody. And detectives need community assistance to gather enough evidence for successful prosecution.

Let me share a recent success story of all these pieces working together. The Historic Northeast neighborhood was recently plagued by a burglar who broke into victims’ homes while they were still inside. Crime analysts and district officers recognized the pattern and deployed resources ranging from extra patrol to cameras to under-cover officers. Neighbors and East Patrol officers held a community meeting to discuss the problem, actions residents could take to prevent crime and how to assist police. More than 100 people came to the meeting. Afterward, the burglar was caught and linked to about 20 crimes. This was an excellent collaboration between residents and police.

Similar work is happening in the 18th and Vine area. Central Patrol Division, the Vice Unit and the City’s Regulated Industries are working with business owners in the entertainment district to address violence that has erupted there. Additional officers also will be deployed at busier times like nights and weekends. Everyone should feel safe patronizing Kansas City’s entertainment districts. They are an integral part of our culture and make our city unique. KCPD constantly works with the management of these districts, as well as the businesses located within them, to ensure a safe environment. We also have excellent partnerships with the private security agencies who work in these areas. Everyone’s goal is to provide a fun place where people can enjoy themselves without fear.

Once a crime takes place, we also devote significant resources to solving it. During the first two weeks of September, Kansas City experienced multiple homicides. The Violent Crime Division alone expended more than $60,000 on overtime those two weeks. That is 1,206.3 extra hours put in by a few squads of detectives in just two weeks to solve these cases. That does not include the work done by crime scene investigators, analysts at the Crime Lab, or specialized units like the Illegal Firearms Squad, Career Criminal Squad or the many others who are involved in investigating these cases, arresting suspects and submitting cases for prosecution. We also have victim advocates who work every day with violent crime victims and their surviving loved ones.

We have incredibly dedicated people who work around the clock to get dangerous people into custody and provide justice. They work long, hard hours to ensure those who commit acts of violence will be stopped before they can hurt others. And as always, they need the help of other segments of the community to make that happen.

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org. 

Unit has assisted 1,058 violent crime victims

Our Victim Assistance Unit continues to quietly work helping those affected by violent crimes. Since they began operations five months ago, they have reached out to 1,058 victims of aggravated assault or robbery.

The detectives assigned to the unit have offered the victims crisis intervention, criminal justice information and referrals to community services for needs directly resulting from the crime such as shelter, food, clothing, grief and trauma counseling. By far, the most requested service from these victims has been trauma counseling.

While they survived the crimes committed against them, many of these victims are left with severe emotional (as well as physical) scars. These can manifest into Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, panic attacks, sleeplessness and more. Trauma counseling is a very specialized discipline that helps victims overcome this fearsome thing that has happened to them.

We have long offered these referral services to the loved ones of homicide victims and domestic violence victims. But just in the last few months, we have expanded that to victims of aggravated assault and robbery.

We hope this outreach encourages trust of law enforcement and prevents retaliation by encouraging victims to work within the criminal justice system. For too long, too many of these victims chose not to cooperate with investigation or prosecution of their case because they wanted to seek some form of justice themselves. But anecdotally, we’re seeing cooperation increase. One of our Victim Assistance Unit detectives recently built a solid rapport with a woman who said she changed her mind and would cooperate with the investigation into her case. I expect to see more and more of this in the future. 

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org. 

New unit is devoted to helping violent crime victims

I'm excited about our new Victim Assistance Unit and how it's reaching out to victims of violent crime. It was one of my first priorities. Within three days of my appointment to Chief, I picked a director who could put the Victim Assistance Unit together. Check out this story about the Unit from our Informant newsletter:

Often before a detective is even assigned to an aggravated assault case, a victim assistance specialist in the new Victim Assistance Unit already has reached out to the victim.

The new unit is part of the Community Support Division and went live on Sept. 9. It is staffed by three sworn officers and a civilian who was a former officer and crime scene technician. But they don’t wear uniforms.

“We don’t say anything about being police officers or detectives (when talking to victims),” Specialist Detective Jerry Grubb said. “We just tell them we’re victim assistance specialists.”

Community Support Division Manager Doug Weishar said every day, the specialists are assigned whatever aggravated assault cases took place the night before. Oftentimes, their cases haven’t even been assigned to a detective yet. The victim assistance specialists’ job is to contact the victims and offer them three things:

1.)    Information on victim assistance, such as what their rights are by state statute and information on victim compensation.

2.)    Answers to any questions they have about the criminal justice system and where their case is in it.

3.)    Assistance with any needs regarding injuries or losses they sustained. The Victim Assistance Unit has partnered with about 30 organizations throughout the City that offer everything from trauma counseling to shelter.

Weishar said an ultimate goal of the unit is to have an enhanced response to every violent crime victim in Kansas City, which would be about 10,000 to 11,000 people per year. Victim Advocate Jennifer Miller continues her work with the families of homicide victims, and the Victim Assistance Unit is starting their work with aggravated assault victims. They will expand to other violent crime victims soon.

Weishar said the victim assistance specialists are not charged with convincing victims to prosecute their cases.

“Empathy and compassion are a good deal of what we do,” he said. “Having said that, we realize some of them are suspects themselves. We hope that by showing that kind of attention to them, we can subtly persuade them to cooperate where they may not have before.”

Victim Assistance Specialist Officer Kevin White said he has gone to hospitals to reach out to injured victims and their families. He follows up with them to see how they’re recovering. Several of the people he’s contacted have been surprised to hear from him.

“People on the phone are just shocked to hear the police department call them to see how they’re doing,” Officer White said. “They didn’t expect those phone calls.”

Victims already have taken advantage of services like trauma and spiritual counseling, bilingual assistance and housing help.

“We don’t just give them a phone number to call,” Weishar said. “We actually contact those community resources ourselves and find one that agrees to assist them. Then we hand (the victims) off to them.”

With the help of the department’s Information Technology staff, the victim assistance specialists can see what detectives have done on the cases, and detectives can see what contact the specialists have had with victims. But the specialists are careful not to get into the investigative arena. Weishar said this is a different layer, and the specialists want to develop trust with the victims.

Weishar said he eventually hopes to have trained volunteers and college interns as part of the unit, enabling them to assist as many violent crime victims as possible.