Everytown for Gun Safety joins call for Kansas City police board to focus on gun violence
Everytown for Gun Safety is calling on Kansas City residents to send a message to the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners urging them to make gun violence prevention a priority during every board meeting.
Unlike in other cities, Kansas City’s police department answers to a board of police commissioners rather than to the city council. The board’s members are appointed by Missouri’s governor.
Local advocates for police reform often cite state control of the department as an impediment to accountability and changes within the department.
“The Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners meets monthly, and it’s critical that gun violence prevention is a key agenda item,” the petition from Everytown, touted as the country’s largest gun violence prevention organization, reads. “The public deserves to know they’re taking the rise in gun violence seriously and have plans to implement strategic solutions for violence reduction that protect all city residents.”
Community members can send a pre-written message which supports recommendations made by Mayor Quinton Lucas to make gun violence a focus at all board meetings.
Lucas in June urged the police board to focus on violent crime with detailed reports on killings and non-fatal shootings during its monthly meetings.
In a letter to police board president Mark Tolbert, Lucas said his goal is have the meeting agenda focus more directly on “the epidemic of gun violence faced by Kansas City.”
This would include updated and detailed statistics on homicides and non-fatal shootings and a discussion on specific plans the department is undertaking to address gun violence. Lucas also asked for a monthly update on how the department has implemented a violence reduction plan that was developed with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Public Safety Partnership.
In recent weeks, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker also called on the police department to stop sending her office hundreds of low-level drug crimes and instead shift focus to the city’s “epidemic of violence.”
Last year, Kansas City suffered the highest number of homicides in the city’s history, recording 182. As of Monday, the city had recorded 84 homicides in 2021. Before 2021 was even halfway over, more than 220 people had been shot and survived.
“We need people in leadership roles like you to take gun violence seriously by detailing the latest statistics on homicide rates and non-fatal shootings in your meetings, as well as provide the public with updates on the police department’s plans to implement strategic solutions for violence reduction,” the Everytown petition reads.
“We deserve concerted focus and efforts on the gun violence crisis in our city, and that starts with you.”
This story was originally published July 19, 2021 at 2:44 PM.
