Our city saw an unusual spike in homicides in November, and I want you to know that your police department is working diligently to solve and prevent these crimes. I’ll be talking more about this next week and will lay out a more thorough analysis of the recent murders, but I want to share a little about them now and how we’re addressing them.
Three suspects were responsible for eight of November’s homicides, and those cases have been cleared. Another homicide resulted from officers shooting and killing one of the suspects of one of those multiple homicides when he fired at police. The majority of the month’s homicides were not drug or gang related. In fact, most of them have been solved.
Two things have been instrumental to finding and arresting the suspects in these killings. First, the cooperation of the community with police during homicide investigations has been vital. Second, resource deployment in hot spot areas has resulted in quick identification and then apprehension of suspects.
The hot spots have been on target – more than half of Novembers homicides happened in those neighborhoods. Although we continue to crack down in those parts of town, there has been no displacement of criminal activity as a result of the hot spot targeting. Within a week, we will deploy additional covert resources in the community.
I’m very appreciative of all members of the police department and other segments of the community for their efforts toward making Kansas City a safe place to live.
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