Kansas City officials lament the loss of $1 million in homeland security funds

Law enforcement and emergency services advocates lamented Wednesday that Kansas City was left off the latest list of cities getting homeland security money, especially in light of regional terrorism risks.

At a Kansas City Council public safety committee meeting, committee chairman John Sharp said the loss of at least $1 million in funds was especially galling in light of a recent Kansas City Star series about domestic terrorism threats and incidents.

“I was glad The Star brought this to the attention of its readers in the Kansas City area,” Sharp said. “This is a very important topic. … It’s something that all members of this committee are very concerned about.”

Sharp said the murders of three people last year at Jewish facilities in Overland Park and the bombing in Oklahoma City 20 years ago, as well as other incidents detailed in The Star’s articles, show the Midwest is vulnerable to domestic terrorism.

But both the Kansas City and Oklahoma City areas have fallen off the list of the nation’s top urban areas scheduled to get $587 million from the Urban Areas Security Initiative funding that becomes available Sept. 1.

Kansas City had feared losing Urban Areas Security Initiative funding in 2014, but after a heavy lobbying effort it was awarded $1 million when the overall fund was allocated to the 39 communities in the U.S. considered at highest risk.

But in the new 2015 allocation, only 28 communities got funding and Kansas City didn’t make the cut. Sharp noted that out of the $587 million, New York City got nearly $181 million and Chicago and Los Angeles each got close to $70 million.

The Kansas City region has received more than $74 million since the program began in 2003 and for many of those years got about $7 million or $8 million. But the region got no funds in 2011 or 2013, and officials are still worried about permanently losing that funding.

Sharp and others noted that Kansas City built up excellent emergency response capabilities with the funding but said they need at least some money every year to maintain essential equipment and training.

Kansas City Police Capt. James Thomas, who heads a Terrorism Early Warning team, said the loss of funding past August 2016 could force him to lose three of nine data analysts who work closely with state and federal partners.

“The loss of (Urban Areas Security Initiative) funding is obviously going to have a great impact as it relates to law enforcement,” Thomas said.

Mayor Sly James and other area mayors and leaders have written a letter to Gov. Jay Nixon, seeking to make up at least part of the lost funding with an allocation from Missouri’s homeland security grant.

This story was originally published April 22, 2015 at 2:22 PM with the headline "Kansas City officials lament the loss of $1 million in homeland security funds."