Kansas City Police are dedicated more than 100 officers to a one-day operation to stamp out a concentration of violent crime in northeast Kansas City neighborhoods.
The Violent Crime Initiative ran from noon to 8 p.m. Monday, May 3, and we announced the results at a press conference at 2 p.m. today.
Investigators and analysts in KCPD’s Narcotics and Vice Division have been mapping crime as it occurs across the city. They noticed a recent concentration in violent crimes in Old Northeast and decided to partner with the Violent Crimes Division to stop it. The operation’s target area was Scarritt to 9th Street and Wabash to Belmont. In eight hours yesterday, we served 17 search warrants, targeting those suspected of involvement in violent crime. We cleared 43 warrants and arrested an additional 17 people on new, state-level drug charges, and another person on a federal gun charge. Officers also recovered sizeable amounts of cocaine, marijuana and $1,120 dollars in cash. More importantly, our investigators obtained valuable information on one unsolved homicide case and two unsolved aggravated assault cases.
At the same time as this project, our Vice Section worked to improve quality of life issues in the neighborhood. They arrested eight people for prostitution, one person for drugs, and they conducted liquor checks at nine stores. Three of those stores sold liquor to minors.
We are committed to proactive projects like this, but we need the public’s help. We need you tell us what you know. Most of the addresses we served warrants at yesterday and last night were brought to the attention of police through alert citizens and cooperative witnesses. With your help, we can prevent these spikes in violent crime before they ever start.
Send comments to kcpdchiefblog@kcpd.org
