National expert sees good things in Kansas City’s anti-violence effort

Despite a recent troubling spike in homicides, Kansas City is doing the right things to combat gun violence in the city.

That’s the assessment of David M. Kennedy, the man behind what is considered the country’s most effective strategy for addressing violent crime.

Kennedy, in Kansas City this week to meet with leaders of the Kansas City No Violence Alliance, spoke Thursday with The Star’s editorial board.

“We’re seeing some really, really good work in Kansas City,” said Kennedy, director of the National Network for Safe Communities at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

Kennedy first came to national prominence in the 1990s when he helped design a program that dramatically reduced homicides in Boston.

That strategy, known as focused deterrence, has spread to other cities and is the model for KC NoVa, which has been operating for about 21/2 years.

Focused deterrence is based on the fact that only a relatively small group of individuals is responsible for a preponderance of violent crime. The strategy identifies those individuals and the groups they associate with and focuses law enforcement efforts on them.

It also involves calling those group members to meetings where they are given the message that violence no longer will be tolerated. They are also given access to social services like job training and drug treatment.

Last year, Kansas City saw a significant drop in homicides to the lowest number in more than 40 years, and authorities credited KC NoVa with much of that decrease.

But as of Thursday morning, the 64 homicides so far in 2015 are 11 ahead of the city’s number at the same time last year. Nineteen homicides have occurred since the beginning of August.

Kennedy and KC NoVa officials say that, based on their data and analysis, the spike is not being driven by the criminal groups they are targeting. Many recent killings have involved domestic situations or disputes between individuals.

“What the city is seeing is not likely to be the beginning of a trend,” Kennedy said.

Police Maj. Joe McHale, project manager for KC NoVa, said that identified group members have been involved in 25 of the city’s 63 killings through Wednesday.

In 2013, before KC NoVa was implemented fully, group members were involved in 68 killings. Last year, the number was 46, according to the statistics McHale provided.

It’s the small criminal groups that “drive violence” in cities across the country, and that’s why it’s important to sustain efforts like KC NoVa to go after them, according to Kennedy.

Even in neighborhoods considered bad for violent crime, Kennedy said, the vast majority of residents are not involved and abhor what is happening around them.

“It’s much smarter to focus on people rather than neighborhoods,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said he is especially impressed with how Kansas City has been able to attract people to the call-in meetings.

“It’s one of the only cities to get meaningful voluntary attendance,” he said.

Here, officers and NoVa staff work to develop personal relationships with the group members and meet with them to invite them to the call-ins. Most cities only target those on probation or parole who can be forced to attend by parole officers, he said.

Kennedy said he is also impressed by the job done by University of Missouri-Kansas City professors who work with KC NoVa in the “social mapping” segment that identifies criminals and their associates.

“They are as good as we see anywhere in the country,” he said.

Kennedy also said the Kansas City Police Department has undertaken an extensive reorganization seen in few other departments to focus on the anti-violence mission.

Ultimately, efforts like KC NoVa have to be ongoing and long term to be successful.

“If you don’t do the work, you don’t get the results,” Kennedy said.

Boston, which initially achieved phenomenal results in reducing homicides, “rested on its laurels” and dismantled most of its program, then saw the homicide rate shoot right back up.

But Kansas City and others can learn from it, he said.

“We don’t know how to cure it,” Kennedy said of violent crime. “But we do know how to treat it.”

This story was originally published September 10, 2015 at 2:27 PM with the headline "National expert sees good things in Kansas City’s anti-violence effort."