Man found dead in his home in 6900 block of E. 114th St. identified

UPDATE: The victim's car was located the evening of July 21 in the 4200 block of E. 56th Terrace. An officer on routine patrol found it abandoned.
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At about 3:45 p.m. yesterday, July 20, police were called to a residence in the 6900 block of East 114th Street to check the welfare of the resident after he did not show up for work. Officers entered the house and found the resident deceased. He has been identified as 30-year-old Nicholas Dutcher, a white male of Kansas City, Mo. His death has officially been ruled a homicide, and police are attempting to locate his vehicle. It is a 2009 gray Ford Escape with Missouri license plate number WA4-D5R. If you have any information about the homicide or see the vehicle, call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).

Police looking for man last seen a week ago

UPDATE - 11:15 a.m. July 21 - John Self has been located at a community shelter in good condition. Thanks for your help.

Kansas City Police are looking for 54-year-old John R. Self, who has been missing since last Wednesday, July 14. He was last seen at noon that day leaving North Kansas City Hospital. He was wearing a white- and gray-striped shirt, dark shorts and dark-rimmed glasses. Mr. Self is 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs about 190 pounds. He has strawberry-blonde hair and blue eyes.

There are no signs of foul play, but his family hasn't seen him and is concerned for his safety. If you know where John Self is, call the KCPD Missing Persons Section at 816-234-5136.

Risk Terrain Modeling

One of our Department’s critical values is innovation, and we’re looking at an intriguing new way to predict where crime will happen using technology we already have. The method is called Risk Terrain Modeling, and we first learned about it through a study three professors at the Rutgers University Center on Public Security published in October 2009.

One of those professors, Dr. Joel Caplan, helped teach our officers how to do Risk Terrain Modeling (RTM). We will use RTM as part of a larger crime reduction pilot project in the South Patrol Division. RTM will attempt to predict where crime will happen and then address it before it does. RTM uses crime-mapping software we already have but takes it to another level. Instead of just including historical information about crime hotspots, it incorporates a variety of other factors (like vacant buildings, where parolees live, or almost any other factor you could think of) to create a map that highlights areas at highest risk for crime.

For example, say we’re trying to predict the next offense in a series of convenience store robberies. We would map the data about past robberies that we already have, but then we’d also map the locations of all convenience stores. We could even highlight those that have ATMs. Put those maps together, and we would come up with a map that helps predict possible robbery targets. We could also include mitigating factors in these maps. We could determine which convenience stores have security guards or really good theft prevention measures, and their risk would likely fall, and that would be reflected in the map.

Here is an example of RTM at work. The top map shows historic violent crime data in an area of south Kansas City. The RTM created for the map below included specific environmental factors for certain types of violent crime. As you can see, when compared to the single violent crime density layer the RTM highlights smaller, more specific areas where the types of violent crime addressed by the RTM are likely to take place in the future. Another RTM created for the same geographic area may highlight other areas based on the type(s) of crime and environmental factors included in the RTM.

Risk Terrain Modeling could drastically change the way we deploy officers. They would still respond to 911 calls, of course, but their proactive work would be very different. Instead of patrolling geographically determined beats, they would patrol where problems are most likely to occur – areas of highest “risk.” We have limited resources, and we hope RTM will direct officers to where they’re most needed. It also will encourage officers to propose specific strategies to address problems in the areas they serve. (In the convenience store example above, police would heavily patrol around stores most likely to be hit by robbers and talk with store managers about theft prevention measures.)

We think RTM could identify many problems – some of which are beyond police authority – like codes problems, absentee landlords and the like. Ideally, once police identify these issues, everyone else in the community – government agencies and politicians, neighbors, churches, schools, businesses, etc. – can step up to help address the underlying problems that are breeding crime.

Of course no map will be able to predict every crime. It’s a relatively new technique, and like I mentioned, we will begin testing it in the South Patrol Division. Training for staff and officers there will commence soon. RTM could prove to be a very valuable tool in stopping crime before it starts in Kansas City.

You can click on the picture below to see how maps of different datasets come together to form an RTM.

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org

Man who died in double shooting July 15 identified

At about 4:30 p.m. Thursday, July 15, police were called to the 5800 block of Michigan Avenue because of a shooting. They found 21-year-old Stephon J. Robinson dead on the sidewalk. A second victim was taken to an area hospital in a private vehicle and was listed in stable condition. A witness said she heard gunshots and saw Robinson on the sidewalk while a black male teen wearing a white T-shirt fled the scene southbound on Michigan Ave. Anyone with information is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).

Man killed Saturday on Armour Blvd. identified

At about 11:30 a.m. Saturday, July 17, a shooting took place at Armour and Campbell. When police arrived, a man was found dead on the sidewalk. He has been identified as 23-year-old Ronnie O. Hughes.  Witnesses said two black male suspects wearing white T-shirts shot Hughes and fled westbound in a green Pontiac Grand Am or Grand Prix. Anyone with information is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).

License plate readers snag violators

Kansas City Police have a new tool under their belts - automatic license plate readers. Here's a story from our Informant newsletter that explains them, and above is a picture of what the cameras look like mounted to a patrol car:

In about 45 seconds, the MPH 900 can do what it would take an officer and dispatcher more than an hour to accomplish: run a parking lot full of license plates.

Kansas City Police now have seven cars outfitted with the Mobile Plate Hunter license plate reader system, and they hit the road near the end of June. The system takes infrared pictures of license plates and compares them to a hot list database stocked with information about warrants and stolen vehicles. It also archives each vehicle’s plate and maps it, so over time, investigators can follow a car’s movements.

“This is just a tool,” said Sergeant Michael Hicks of the Research and Development Division. “It alerts the officer of a warrant or something wanted on the plate and prompts the officer to call a dispatcher to compare it to the live database.”

The plate reader database is updated just once daily. It includes a prioritized list from criminal justice databases ALERT, MULES and NCIC of things like felony warrants, stolen vehicles and stolen plates. But because those things change by the minute, Sergeant Hicks said patrol officers must work with a dispatcher the old-fashioned way to compare a license plate to the live database that is updated in real time before being able to stop a potential suspect. In fact, Hicks said the cameras were purchased – at the cost of about $24,000 each – in accordance with research the department is doing to develop a real-time crime center.

The cameras are mounted to the back of regularly marked patrol cars. One is deployed in each of the six patrol divisions and one in the Special Operations Division. Sergeant Hicks said they can take pictures at a distance of about 25 to 30 feet and at highway speeds. One system can run 7,000 license plates a day before the data needs to be moved wirelessly to one of KCPD’s servers. Once it’s there, Sergeant Hicks said the real value of the plate readers becomes evident.

“The main benefit is in investigations,” he said. “All the data can be queried later on from the back end in an investigation.”

Sergeant Hicks said he hopes officers run the cameras 24/7.

“The best way to deploy (the plate readers) is to keep them rolling all the time and never stop them so they’re always gathering data,” Sergeant Hicks said.

Work is underway to link the data that will be collected by KCPD’s plate readers with other agencies across the state and around the nation. In the Kansas City area, the Lenexa and North Kansas City police departments already have the plate readers in place, as does the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department.

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org

Police seek teenager missing since July 9

UPDATE: Paul Thurman has been located. Thanks for your assistance.

Seventeen-year-old Paul D. Thurman has been missing for a week. He was last seen on foot near the 3300 block of 24th Street wearing a white T-shirt, black shorts and blue Jordan shoes. He is a black male who is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 200 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes. His family is worried about his safety.

If you know where Paul Thurman is, please have him contact a family member and call KCPD's Missing Persons Section at 816-234-5136.

KC Bike and Footchase on Sunday will benefit officer whose house burned down

Try to outrun the police (legally!) at the sixth annual KC Bike and Footchase, sponsored by KCPD Friends and Family, the morning of July 18 at Zona Rosa, 8640 N. Dixson.

Day-of registration begins at 6:30 a.m. The bike races (20 miles or 50 miles) begin at 7 a.m., and the 5K run will begin at 8 a.m. The bike course begins and ends at Zona Rosa and goes through some lovely country roads in Platte County. The 5K course will be around Zona Rosa. The event will take place rain or shine.

Registration is $30, and proceeds from this year's race will benefit the family of a KCPD officer who lost everything in a June house fire. For more information or to pre-register, go to http://www.kcbikeandfootchase.org/.

City Council honors detention officer who will donate her kidney

I've already told you about Detention Officer Tricia Wadell, who is scheduled to donate her kidney to Police Chief Greg Dagnan of Carthage, Mo. Today, the City Council recognized her with a special resolution, and I really want to thank them and Mayor Mark Funkhouser for doing so. Tricia was very honored, and her family came up from southern Missouri to see it. Also in attendance were Chief Dagnan and his wife, who made the trek from Carthage. Chief Dagnan will receive Tricia's kidney in a tandem operation in St. Louis on July 29. Both will take 6-8 weeks away from police work to recover. I wish them the very best.

Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org

Homicide victim found in car in McDonald's parking lot identified

At 6:12 a.m. Tuesday, July 13, police were called to McDonald's in the 6400 block of Troost in regard to a suspicious car and occupant. Upon arrival, a black male was found deceased in the vehicle. The man has been identified as 25-year-old Oladimeji Oladipo of Kansas City, Mo. Police are not releasing the cause of death, and detectives ask anyone with information to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).