Online rumors of sex trafficking at Country Club Plaza don’t match police narrative
Kansas City Police said in a tweet Friday morning that they had received no reports related to social media rumors of sex trafficking on the Country Club Plaza.
A single report was filed Friday afternoon by the person who made the initial post about the rumors on Instagram Tuesday, police said.
In the posts, a woman says she was followed by about four men as she walked around the Plaza for an hour. She said two of them followed her into a retail store and pretended to shop until she called a friend to pick her up.
She says she spoke to police about the incident and watched surveillance video of “four-six men strategically casing, profiling and attempting to corner (her).”
Police, she said, “confirmed that it (undoubtedly) represents a sex trafficking group.”
In the posts, she also said other women had voiced similar experiences.
Kansas City Police spokesman Jake Becchina on Friday afternoon that KCPD had “no indication that (the woman) had talked to an officer before today.”
Police posted on social media about the rumors before the report was made Friday morning.
“Following that posting we were able to proactively reach out to the original poster, who had not made a report,” spokesman Jake Becchina said in an email to The Star. “She then came to central patrol and made a report.”
According to a preliminary narrative police shared with The Star Friday evening, the incident occurred around 11 a.m. Tuesday when a woman noticed at least three men looking in her direction and became uneasy.
She eventually was picked up by her friend from a retail store just after 12:30 p.m.
The preliminary narrative does not mention surveillance video or conversations with officers about sex trafficking.
“Please keep in mind that thefts are statistically a much more likely reason to be targeted,” the department’s post on Twitter said.
Officials at the Country Club Plaza said in a statement Friday morning that they take the matter very seriously.
“We would encourage anyone that has or is seeking additional information to contact the KCPD,” the statement said.
Police urged residents to call 911 or the non-emergency line at (816)234-5111 if they feel unsafe.
This story was originally published July 26, 2019 at 11:03 AM.
