Crime falls downtown and across much of Kansas City

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Most crime downtown involves vandalism, stealing and burglary. In the Loop, total crime incidents fell from 1,820 to 1,011 from 2001 to 2006. In the Crossroads, the crime rate has dropped from 3.6 per resident to 0.5.

Police say these declines are impressive, given downtown’s increasing population. More people usually lead to more crime, but organized neighborhood associations help because they form relationships with officers.

“The community is our best resource out there,” said Master Police Officer Jim Schriever, who works with the Crossroads organization. “They’re out there 24/7 and 365 days a year. They know what’s normal in their neighborhood and what’s not.”

Elsewhere in the city, successful neighborhood crime-fighting involves resources.

In the cases of Blue Hills and Ivanhoe on the East Side, those resources include fortitude. Strong neighborhood associations fighting housing blight and active coalitions of residents such as the 100 Men of Blue Hills have had an impact. Violent crime and property crimes in parts of Ivanhoe are down more 40 percent, and Blue Hills had the fifth-largest decrease in total crime.

In the case of the Ward Parkway-Brookside area, the resource is money. Neighborhoods and homes associations have hired off-duty police for extra daytime and holiday-time patrols. Places such as Romanelli West, Stratford Gardens and Brookside Park never had much crime to begin with but still lowered their rates more than 70 percent.

In the case of the Briarcliff-Claymont (not the posh Briarcliff West) neighborhood up north, the resource is computers. When a series of burglaries or thefts starts, the Police Department’s North Patrol Division notifies the Northland Community Alliance, a group of homes associations, and the alliance immediately sends an e-mail alert to homeowners.

Once, someone was stealing checks and bank statements from mailboxes, so the alliance suggested that homeowners stop putting up the red flag on their boxes to signal outgoing mail.

“We stopped it before it got too far,” said Ralph Scott, who was a longtime president of the alliance. “We stress that neighbors must watch out and protect their fellow neighbors. It’s paid off.”

Sometimes, though, swings in crime are just a matter of changing circumstances.

Consider the Sterling Acres neighborhood nestled between Independence and Raytown in far eastern Kansas City. In 2001, it was “the neighborhood of picking” for criminals hanging around the deteriorating Blue Ridge Mall. When the mall closed a few years later, crime in the area seemed to disappear, said police Officer Dave DeLaMare.

That was how Sterling Acres ended up leading the city in crime reduction, on a percentage basis, from 2001 to 2006.

But this year was different. A Wal-Mart opened on the site of the mall, which brought back traffic and, in some cases, trouble. Even the church where the neighborhood association holds its monthly meetings has been burglarized. And because of rising gas prices, neighborhood volunteers have stopped nightly street patrols.

“We’re getting a little lazy, I think,” said Bobbie Stackhouse, a member of the neighborhood board.

Changing circumstances also were behind some of the other crime increases across the city.

In growing Fairway Hills east of Raytown, its small amount of crime doubled as thieves took to stealing from construction sites. In Platte County’s Prairie Point-Wildberry, the Zona Rosa development opened within the neighborhood’s boundaries, resulting in a spike in stealing.

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To reach Jeffrey Spivak, call 816-234-4416 or send e-mail to jspivak@kcstar.com. To reach Christine Vendel, call 816-234-4438 or send e-mail to cvendel@kcstar.com.