Mounted Patrol and PAL team up for riding program for inner-city children

This is an article from our monthly Informant newsletter about a fun program we started last month. You can check out the rest of the newsletter at http://www.kcpd.org/ :

Marissa Simons, an 8-year-old who attends Garfield Elementary School, had been near a horse only one time in her life.

“It was a few years ago at a county fair,” she said.

But that changed in June. She chose to participate in the Police Athletic League’s new partnership with the Mounted Patrol that aims to teach inner-city kids how to ride horses.

“I like it,” she said. “They’re really gentle and nice.”

PAL and Mounted Patrol launched the program June 10. More than a dozen children come out to Mounted Patrol’s stables for two hours every Wednesday morning to learn the basics of horses and how to ride them.

“Most of these kids have no exposure at all to horses,” PAL Officer Shawnie Nix said. “ … They really like it. Some are a little scared because the horses are so big and they’re not used to them.”

A different group of children is supposed to come every week, but some kids, like Marissa, loved it so much they begged to come back.

Mounted Patrol’s stables are located in the Lake of the Woods area of Swope Park. When the facility was constructed in 1999, the grant used to build it stipulated that the occupants would have to offer riding programs to inner-city children. The Mounted Patrol took over the facility in 2006, and the terms of the lease continued to mandate the riding programs, said Sergeant Joey Roberts, supervisor of the Mounted Patrol Section. He said they tried some classes with Parks and Recreation, but they never really took off. So this year, they decided to partner with the children served by the department’s own Police Athletic League.

Mounted Patrol officers first brought the PAL officers over to teach them about horses and horse safety so they could assist the children. The children spend about an hour in class learning horse basics, like how to approach them safely, how horses see (they can't see anything right in front of their faces) and more. They spend the next hour actually riding police horses.

This is just a prelude to a bigger program, Sergeant Roberts said. The PAL officers will pick the 10 children they think show the most interest and aptitude to participate in a more advanced horsemanship course this fall. Through eight lessons, those children will learn about how to care for and ride a horse. Their instructors will be Mounted Patrol officers.

“We’ll start from the ground up,” Sergeant Roberts said. “We’ll teach them how to tack a horse. We’ll teach them how to walk and trot. Some may even be able to canter.”

Officer Nix said she hopes the program has a positive impact on the children.

“We always say, ‘If you can reach one kid,’” she said. “If one kid comes out of this and turns out to want to be a veterinarian or something like that, it’s worth it.”

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South Patrol, Hickman Mills Prevention Coalition host Ruskin meet and greet Friday

PRESS RELEASE:

Officers from the South Patrol Division, other KCPD units and members of the Hickman Mills School District’s Prevention Coalition will meet with residents Friday to get to know them and talk about current crime trends and safety tips.

The event will take place from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, July 10, at Ruskin Way Park, 113th Street and Ruskin Way. In addition to officers from the South Patrol Division, officers and their animal partners will be present from the Canine and Mounted Patrol sections. Bomb and Arson Section personnel also will be there.

The meet and greet is happening to address ongoing crime trends in the Ruskin area. Officers want to get acquainted with area residents and business people, as well as pass out information and tell residents how to stay safe and take back their neighborhood.

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Kansas City Police release audit on vehicle fleet

PRESS RELEASE:

The Kansas City Missouri Police Department’s Internal Audit Unit released an audit today of the status of the department’s vehicle fleet.

Internal auditors were tasked with finding where all 1,030 department vehicles were assigned and their condition. This audit included bicycles, motorcycles, trailers, leased under-cover vehicles, specialty vehicles and more.

Auditors found several record-keeping problems that arose from low-level self reporting, redundant paper-based systems and a frequent reassignment of vehicles.

The audit found the average life span of a KCPD vehicle is eight years, and the average KCPD vehicle has 140,000 miles on it. It also stated that the fleet’s condition is not as good as previously believed.

“The ability of the Fleet Operations Unit to extend the average service life of the vehicle fleet has created an externally overly optimistic view of the fleet’s condition,” the audit states in its “Findings” section.

Chief James Corwin requested the fleet status audit after he reviewed the 2008 annual take-home car audit. That audit is still being studied by department commanders and will be released at a later date.

The full audit report is available online at http://www.kcpd.org/kcpd2004/1/Fleet%2008-10.pdf

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Decomposed body in van ruled homicide victim

UPDATE: (07/15/09)The victim has been identified as 50-year-old James L. Rodgers of Kansas City, Mo. Police are still seeking information in the case and ask anyone who has some to call the TIPS Hotline.

At 8:46 a.m. Monday, July 6, officers were called to 40th & Norton in regard to an ambulance call. The caller advised a van had been parked there for several days, and there was a foul odor. Officers responded and observed a decomposing body inside the abandoned van. They originally investigated the incident as a death, but it has now been ruled a homicide. Detectives are still working to identify the body. The victim is a black male in his 50's.

Anyone with information is asked to call the TIPS Hotline 816.474.8477.

More red light cameras coming

The City of Kansas City, Mo., Public Works Department announced Thursday that July 17 is the target date for activating additional red-light safety cameras at the following intersections:
U.S. Highway 71 and Red Bridge Road
Bannister Road and I-435.

July 24 has been announced as the target date for activating additional red-light safety cameras at the intersections of:
N.E. Barry Road/Missouri Highway 152 and North Flintlock Road
23rd Street and I-435
Bannister Road and U.S. Highway 71.

It is anticipated that three more red-light safety cameras will be activated in late July, bringing the total number of active red-light cameras to 30 and the total number of program intersections to 18. After July, no additional red light cameras are scheduled to be constructed. For more information, go to http://www.kcmo.org/pubworks.

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Agenda for Board of Police Commissioners Thursday

1. 8:30 a.m. Business Session
Thursday, July 9
6th Floor Board Room, Police Headquarters
1125 Locust St.

10 a.m. Audit Committee meeting
Thursday, July 9, 2009
same location

2. Ms. I. Pearl Fain – Office of Community Complaints.
a. General Discussion.

3. Chief James Corwin.
a. Blueprint Discussion.
b. FY 10 Budget Implementation Update.
c. General Discussion.

4. Deputy Chief Nick Nichols – Executive Officer.
a. General Discussion.

5. Deputy Chief Cyril Ritter – Patrol Bureau.
a. General Discussion.

6. Deputy Chief Rachel Whipple – Administration Bureau.
a. Performance Standards Agreement, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Kansas City.
b. Attorney General “Vehicle Stops Reports.”
c. General Discussion.

7. Deputy Chief Kevin Masters – Investigations Bureau.
a. General Discussion.

8. Deputy Chief Darryl Forte - Executive Services Bureau.
a. Adjustments to Special Revenue Accounts for Fiscal Year-2009-10.
b. Jail Consolidation Update.
c. General Discussion.

9. Lisa S. Morris – Office of General Counsel.

10. Retirement Study.

11. Future Business Meeting Agenda Items.

12. Ms. Jennifer Atterbury.

13. Chief James Corwin.

14. Mayor Mark Funkhouser.

15. Commissioner Patrick McInerney.

16. Commissioner James B. Wilson.

17. Commissioner Karl Zobrist.

18. Commissioner Mark C. Thompson.

19. Motion to go into Closed Session.

14-year-old killed July 5 identified

At approximately 9:20 p.m. July 5, Kansas City police were called to the area of Linwood and College in regard to a shooting. Upon arrival, officers located a black male in his teens deceased from an apparent gunshot wound. The victim has been identified as 14-year-old William L. Parker, of Kansas City, Kan.

Witnesses say they observed the victim in the driveway and called police. There are no suspects in custody. Anyone with information is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at 816.474.8477.

Get Me Out of Jail!

I want to get out of the jail business. That is something I have said since I became police chief. Even more important than getting out of the jail business is getting out of the jail business with a plan. No one would begin a large scale project like getting out of the jail business without a plan, yet that is what I am being asked to do.

Talk of a regional jail has been ongoing for some time. The discussion began in earnest in March of 2008 but did not include the police. The initial plan did not include any discussion of the elimination of the jail at Police Headquarters. These plans continued to progress and during the budget discussions in January of this year, it was reported the savings to close the Municipal Correctional Institute (MCI) and house prisoners at the Jackson County Detention Center would save $1 million. Again, no mention is made of closing the jail at Police Headquarters. When the manager submitted his budget to the City Council, no mention was made of closing the jail at Police Headquarters.

Over the next few months, the Public Safety and Neighborhoods committee met several times. During these meetings, the Police Department’s Headquarters detention facility is either not mentioned at all or mentioned only as a passing issue. The newspaper coverage does not make any mention of closing the facility at Police Headquarters. In all of the discussion about the jail issue, the closing of MCI was the issue, not closing the police facility.

Recently, there has been a rush to get a decision from the police to get involved with this project. Currently, we can “house” people in the police facility for close to what we would be charged by Jackson County so our savings would be minimal. We have not been provided with a plan that provides adequate protection of the police interest. We are simply being told to get on board because they claim it will save money. The costs for this project have gone from $1.4 million to $2.1 million and are now at $3.3 million. I believe that in these tough budget times, I owe it to the tax payers of this city to question this project. I would never think of going into business with someone with out a plan. Yet, that is what is being asked of the police department.

The City has already taken $1.5 million from the Capital Improvements Sales Tax fund without the approval of the Board of Police Commissioners and without the knowledge of the police department. Now we are being publicly pressured to join in this partnership and give more money without a concrete plan. What’s worse, we are being blamed for a delay to a project that we were only recently asked to join.

We do not want to dive head first into an empty pool. We just want some water in the pool before we make a big commitment with the tax payer trust and money. Is that too much to ask?

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Reminder: Fireworks not allowed in Kansas City

Independence Day is Saturday, so it’s time to remind the residents of Kansas City, Mo., that fireworks are prohibited in city limits. City Ordinance 26-3309.1 states, “Except as hereinafter provided, it shall be unlawful for any person to possess, keep, offer for sale, sell at retail, use or explode any fireworks in the city.”

The exception stated in that code is for permitted, professional, public displays, of which there will be several for you to enjoy. The Kansas City Star has rounded them up from all over the metro here: http://www.kansascity.com/700/story/1298998.html

There is a very good reason the city does not allow the personal use of these explosives. Within the last couple of weeks, KCPD already has responded to two fireworks casualties. One involved a young adult who lost at least one finger. In the other, an adult taped several powerful explosives together and threw them into the air while they were lit. They came apart, and one fell down and hit an 8-year-old child in the face. The boy may lose sight in one eye, and his ear drum burst, which could leave him with permanent hearing loss. He also will likely have scarring from the burns.

In 2008, the Kansas City Fire Department reports that it responded to 11 fireworks-related incidents. Ten of them were between June 29 and July 9. One caused $400,000 in damage. Several people lost $25,000 worth of property from fires caused by fireworks. These happened in all kinds of areas – occupied and vacant homes and apartments, detached garages and in open spaces.

Even seemingly innocent things like sparklers can have huge consequences. They burn at 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about six times as hot as the temperature needed to boil water. That can cause serious third-degree burns. The National Fire Protection Association has more information about the dangers of fireworks here: http://www.nfpa.org/newsReleaseDetails.asp?categoryid=488&itemId=44078

Police called to fireworks complaints this weekend will confiscate fireworks, and our Bomb and Arson Unit will destroy them.

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Police vehicles: purchase and storage

The average Kansas City Police Department vehicle has 140,000 miles on it, according to an internal audit of our fleet conducted in February. And those are 140,000 hard, stop-start, sirens-blaring miles. Many people trade in their cars long before they reach that point. In fact, many police agencies auction off their vehicles at 77,000 miles. But we feel it’s fiscally responsible to keep ours for as long as possible. Many are well over the 200,000-mile mark. We must be in a constant cycle of replacing these vehicles so that officers can respond to 911 calls as quickly as possible in a functioning, safe and reliable car. The safety of the community is dependent upon our fleet’s reliability.

In the 2008-09 fiscal year, the police department requested $4.5 million from the city to begin replacing our aging, high-mileage fleet. The city gave us $1 million. So we bought what we could. But then a pleasant surprise happened. Gas prices dropped precipitously. Near the end of the 08-09 fiscal year, we realized a savings of close to $1 million. We notified the city’s Budget Office of these anticipated savings and informed them we would be using the money to purchase more vehicles (at the cost of about $21,000 each), with the approval of the Board of Police Commissioners. We knew the budget would be grim for this FY 09-10 fiscal year and that purchasing any cars at all would be unlikely. So we wanted to use what money we had to get the cars when we could. The money could not be carried over into the next fiscal year and thus could not fund the salaries of any officers. We did not return this money to the city because they under-funded our vehicle purchase budget by $3.5 million in the first place.

The members of the Board of Police Commissioners unanimously approved these vehicle purchases in their public meeting. The purchase was an item on the agenda sent to all media outlets and posted on the department’s Web site, www.kcpd.org. There was nothing secretive about it. An article on the front page of the Kansas City Star today states that the Board of Police Commissioners’ president was unavailable for comment. However, that reporter did interview the Board’s vice president, Karl Zobrist. Mr. Zobrist indicated that he and all of his fellow board members did indeed approve of the vehicle purchase. He told the reporter it was “good management.” The reporter chose not to put this in his story, and we feel it was an important omission.

The reason the new cars are in storage is because city budget cuts have reduced our Communication Support Section’s staff by almost 50 percent. This section is in charge of installing all equipment on police cars, including radios, computers, light bars, rifle racks and more. Nearly half of the employees there retired in May through an early retirement program we were forced to offer due to our budget being cut $15 million. Due to our hiring freeze, we cannot fill their positions. Communication Support technicians can now only outfit three to four cars a month with all of their needed police equipment. They pull them out of the storage facilities as soon as they can get to them, and the vehicles are deployed to the fleet as soon as they’re ready. Communications Support technicians also have to handle all repairs to equipment for the entire city including our fleet, the Fire Department, Public Works, the Airport and other non-public safety agencies within the city.

We did not authorize photos to be taken of the cars in storage because they are in a non-public area, and we are concerned about the safety of our assets. Many areas of the police department are not accessible to the public for safety reasons, including the Crime Lab, jail, under-cover operations and other areas. This was a similar situation.

In conclusion, this police department is committed to transparency. It’s one of our Critical Values. The purchase of these vehicles and the reasons for doing so were very public. We also are committed to the safety of this community. Reliable cars are a big – though rarely thought about – part of that.

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