What will federal involvement in Kansas City crime look like? Here’s what leaders say
A new federal operation is bringing in more than 200 federal agents with the goal of reducing violent crime in Kansas City. But it’s not a government takeover. There won’t “be tanks on the streets.”
Timothy Garrison, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas held a press conference Wednesday morning at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas City to address concerns around Operation LeGend.
Attorney General William Barr announced a week earlier that Operation Legend, named after 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was fatally shot while sleeping in a Kansas City apartment late last month, will send national law enforcement officers into Kansas City within the next 10 days to quell a “surge of violent crime.”
According to data kept by The Star, Kansas City which includes police shootings, 104 people have been killed this year. The majority of those homicides were shootings.
“An unprecedented spike in violent crime deserves an unprecedented response from government authorities,” Garrison said. LeGend’s mother, Charron Powell, his grandparents and Rosilyn Temple with Mothers in Charge stood on either side of him.
A week earlier, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said during a July 8 news conference that Barr directed agents from the Department of Justice’s law enforcement agencies — the FBI, the United States Marshals Service, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — to arrive in the city within the following weeks.
The operation quickly came under local scrutiny as details of the plan were slow to be released and rumors of its implications raised concerns.
Here’s what Operation LeGend looks like
Garrison said an additional 225 federal agents from the FBI, DEA, Marshals Service and ATF will soon join 400 agents already working and living in the metro area. They will assist local law enforcement with both new and old unsolved shooting cases. The goal is to increase the clearance rate of unsolved crimes, such as LeGend’s killing.
LeGend became Kansas City’s youngest homicide victim this year after he was fatally shot in his sleep around 2:30 a.m. on June 29 at The Citadel Apartments on Bushman Road.
The operation isn’t a question of politics or bureaucratic egos, Lucas said, but rather about enhancing investigation tools.
“This operation is not tanks on the streets,” the mayor said. “This operation is not a substitute patrol force. This operation is not over-enforcement from federal law enforcement.”
For the purpose of operational security, Garrison wouldn’t disclose an exact timeline for the operation.
“We’re not here to say we’re going to conduct x-number of arrests and when we’ve reached that total we’re going to leave,” he said. “Our goal is to identify the most prolific violent offenders and to take them out of circulation so they can’t harm anyone else.”
Garrison said each of the agencies involved brings its own strengths.
The FBI handles complex investigations. The ATF might help connect the dots between acts of violence city-wide. The DEA identifies actors in drug-related violence and the U.S. Marshals Service is known for tracking down fugitives, he said.
He added that while Kansas City police had these abilities already, the new agents will be providing additional resources and support.
Community response
Local officials were not briefed on the operation before it was announced. The mayor found out on Twitter, he said the day of the White House briefing.
“The rollout of this operation did not go as I would have preferred it to happen,” Garrison said Wednesday, adding that he didn’t know in advance about the White House briefing. But now that the public knows, Garrison said he wants to be as transparent as possible.
Lucas and Garrison had a conversation with local activists, clergy and civil rights activists on Monday. Some were concerned that more details hadn’t been released sooner.
During a virtual discussion Tuesday moderated by The Star’s Editorial Board member Toriano Porter, U.S. Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II, of Missouri’s 5th Congressional District said he was blind-sided by the announcement.
Had he been told in advance, Cleaver said he would have relayed: “Please go back and tell Gen. Barr that he may have the best plan that’s ever been conceived if it’s real and serious and genuinely designed to be of help to Kansas City, but that there has to be some community work done before that happens because in the absence of communication, you open the door for imagination.”
Rosilyn Temple, founder and executive director of the Kansas City chapter of Mothers in Charge, stood beside Garrison and encouraged the community to help KCPD’s homicide unit.
“Let’s embrace this operation,” Temple said, asking members of the community to “step up.”
Police continue to ask for the community’s help in identifying a suspect in LeGend’s killing.
Anyone with information about the homicide is asked to call the Kansas City Police Department’s Homicide Unit at 816-234-5043 or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).
Information leading to an arrest could be eligible for a $25,000 cash reward.
Gun violence will be the subject of a new, statewide journalism project The Star is undertaking in Missouri this year in partnership with the national service program Report for America and sponsored in part by Missouri Foundation for Health. As part of this project, The Star will seek the community’s help.
To contribute, visit Report for America online at reportforamerica.org.
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 2:58 PM with the headline "What will federal involvement in Kansas City crime look like? Here’s what leaders say."
