Kansas City police’s new crime-fighting effort will target ‘the trigger pullers’
For the past month, Kansas City police have gone after and arrested a small group of criminals the department says is responsible for the vast majority of homicides and other violent crimes that have taken place recently in the city.
The new effort is a shift in a strategy launched five years ago as part of the Kansas City No Violence Alliance of KC NoVa, a crime-fighting collaboration between local, state and federal authorities. That initiative concentrated on gangs or loosely organized criminal groups.
The police department’s new enforcement approach targets specific individuals, Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith said during a Friday press conference at the U.S. District courthouse.
“Although the number of these violent offenders is low, they are responsible for the vast majority of our violent crime,” Smith said. “The result is this new enforcement strategy that targets the trigger pullers.”
Smith said following the first year of KC NoVa, killings and other violent crime dipped to a historic low. Group related homicides dropped from 64% of all homicides to 37% of all homicides.
“But homicides continue to be an issue in Kansas City so we needed to adapt,” Smith said.
Evaluators from the U.S. Department of Justice spent 18 months in Kansas City examining the effectiveness of KC NoVa and recommended the new crime-fighting strategy, Smith said.
Part of the new effort is connected to federal “Project Safe Neighborhoods,” which began in 2001. Last year, then U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced federal authorities would be relaunching the effort, which targets the “most violent and persistent offenders.”
Similar strategies in Tampa, Florida, and Camden, New Jersey, have helped reduce crime and gun violence.
The new initiative also encourages local police to present cases to both state and federal prosecutors to determine the best way to keep criminals off the street. However, additional efforts such as prevention are needed.
“Prosecution alone is not enough to make our neighborhoods safe which is why we need the help of the members of our community, the folks in the very neighborhoods who are being victimized by the violence,” said Tim Garrison, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
Also, authorities hope to remove a high number of firearms from Kansas City streets.
Mayor Sly James said Friday loose gun laws and easy access to firearms has contributed to the city’s staggering homicide numbers and violence. State lawmakers should pass laws that require gun owners to file police reports when their weapon is lost or stolen, James said.
“The issue of gun violence in this city is of paramount importance,” he said. “There is no easy solution, there is no easy answer.”
In 2018, Kansas City police recovered 2,181 firearms. Of that number 706 weapons were reported stolen, with 52 percent of them being stolen from vehicles, said Marino Vidoli, the special agent in charge for the Kansas City field office for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Many of those guns come into Kansas City through straw purchases, thefts from gun shops and residential burglaries, Vidoli said Friday.
“We are doing everything we can to address violence,” James said. “But it consistently remains the top and nagging issue that we have in this city.”
Also on Friday, Rick Armstrong, president of the Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission, announced an increase in the $10,000 reward currently being offered for tips in Kansas City homicides to $25,000.
Additionally, the group will pay up to a $1,000 reward for tips leading to an arrest of anyone using a firearm illegally. That includes buying, selling, and felons who are found in possession of a firearm.
“This is good money for anyone willing to be involved,” Armstrong said.
In addition to targeting the city’s most violent offenders, Smith said the police department has added social workers at each of the city’s six patrol divisions. The police department has doubled the number of community interaction officers to help residents and neighborhoods immediately address crime and other problems.
However, neighborhoods and community leaders must play a role in helping reduce gun-related violence, Smith said.
“Our city is tired of the senseless violence that has altered so many lives,” he said. “Today we are sending a clear message, illegal and senseless use of firearms must stop. As a city, we can do better and we must.”
This story was originally published June 21, 2019 at 10:21 AM.
