KCPD starts reviews aimed at solving more nonfatal shootings, curbing retaliation
Kansas City police have begun conducting weekly shooting reviews, a process that has been credited with reducing gunshot injuries and deadly retaliation in other cities.
During a Board of Police Commissioners meeting Tuesday, Maj. Greg Volker said the reviews began earlier this month. They involve a host of agencies analyzing the past week’s shootings.
Police officials are optimistic the reviews will bring results. Volker said he wants nonfatal shootings solved within three weeks.
“That’s a goal we can achieve,” Volker said, noting, though, that “magic doesn’t happen overnight.”
As part of his presentation to the police commissioners, Volker put up slides displaying an example of what type of information is discussed during the reviews, such as a narrative of what is known and if ballistics information is pending.
On the slide for a recent fatal shooting, police said detectives had a description of a vehicle and that technicians recovered spent 9mm casings from the crime scene. It also showed what was labeled an “impact score,” letting investigators know the victim was considered high risk — he had a criminal history — and he was slain, found on the ground near a vehicle, in an area with little crime.
Police determined the area was considered low risk by using risk terrain modeling, which utilizes maps and characteristics of an area, such as a liquor store, to see what might attract criminal behavior.
Modeled in part on a Milwaukee police practice, the shooting reviews include members from the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Missouri, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The first review looked at shootings from Dec. 30 to Jan. 5, Volker said.
One of the eight nonfatal shootings during that time was reported in the 3300 block of Askew Avenue, an area considered low risk, according to police. The victim, considered high risk because of his possible involvement in armed robberies and carjackings, told police he was shot by one of four people in a vehicle that pulled up to him.
The victim had also been shot months earlier about a block away in the 3400 block of Askew Avenue. Police, however, were not able to find the crime scene after the recent shooting.
The gunshot victim was very uncooperative, police said. He claimed to not know the suspects and said he did not see a gun.
Victim cooperation remains a problem in Kansas City. The police department has estimated about 70 percent of surviving gunshot victims are not willing to assist detectives. Some refuse to tell police anything, even if they know their shooters.
“It’s shocking how little cooperation there is,” said Nathan Garrett, president of the city’s commissioners board.
To increase cooperation, Volker said, police are working on recontacting victims of previous crimes.
“This is brand new,” he said. “But it has (had) a good, positive outcome so far.”
Shooting reviews have been credited with solving more nonfatal shootings in other cities.
In Wilmington, Delaware, police increased their clearance rate for nonfatal shootings from 15 percent to more than 70 percent by using a robust shooting review process, according to an assessment report.
Police in Oakland, California — which saw a drop in nonfatal shootings from 561 to 277 within a recent five-year period — also consider their shooting review an important part of their strategy.
In Kansas City, officials consider the number of living shooting victims staggering. Since 2014, when police started tracking bullet-to-skin data, more than 2,600 people have been shot and survived.
And those who shoot living victims have historically had a good chance of getting away with it. From 2013 to 2017, Kansas City detectives solved between 22 and 29 percent of aggravated assaults, which include nonfatal shootings.
Also recently, the force has added eight more detectives to its homicide unit, which now totals 32 investigators. And as part of its increased focus on nonfatal shootings, police have increased the number of available positions on its assault squad from 12 to 24.
“While we’re all about trying to work smarter out there,” Garrett said in December, “some things never change, and having more feet on the street and less caseload per detective matters.”
This story was originally published January 15, 2020 at 10:56 AM.
