Officials announce Raytown plan to help at-risk youth, solve more business robberies
Officials announced Thursday the details of a new violence reduction program in Raytown that aims to help at-risk young people and solve more business robberies.
Surrounded by Raytown city officials, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said the program was built on strategies that have reduced violence in other U.S. cities.
“This is not an impossible problem,” Baker said of reducing violence. “It really can be done, and we can do it here too in Raytown.”
Efforts to initiate the program began months ago when officials analyzed the city’s violent crime data, which identified clusters of violence involving young people and a low clearance of business robberies, Raytown Police Chief Robert Kuehl said.
As part of the program, Darren Faulkner, director of community engagement for the Kansas City No Violence Alliance, will work with people who are identified as needing help to put them on a path to “a different future.”
Speaking at C. Lee Kenagy Park, officials also said they hoped that aspect of the program would assist in building stronger community trust by getting people jobs and mental health services, among other things.
Another aspect will involve working with the Raytown Chamber of Commerce to help solve more robberies at businesses. That will include aiding business owners in creating and storing surveillance footage.
In 2019, there were 49 robberies in Raytown, some of which occurred at Raytown businesses. That’s compared to 48 in 2018 and 47 in 2017, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office. The clearance rate for robberies in 2019 was 20%, which is below the national average.
Strategies similar to the one announced Thursday have reduced violence in Kansas City before, Baker said. After the launch of KC NoVA, she noted, 2014 ended with 86 killings in Kansas City — the fewest in more than four decades.
“Too many of us have lived in Kansas City with these terrible headlines for too long,” said Baker, whose office is assigning an assistant prosecutor to the program. “In fact, we’re living with them today.”
Last week, Kansas City broke its all-time record for homicides in a year after a double shooting left the city’s 156th victim dead. As of Thursday, 230 people have been killed in homicides across the metro.
Three people have been killed this year in Raytown, according to data maintained by The Star, which includes one fatal police shooting. That’s down compared to eight killings by this time in 2019 and six by this time in 2018. There were two in 2017.
Other violent incidents, such as robberies and shots fired, have increased, Kuehl said. Asked if the uptick in violent crime in Kansas City has bled over into Raytown, the chief said it has.
“Folks that are involved in this or tied to it or close to it, they don’t recognize when they cross from one city to the other,” Kuehl told reporters. “We definitely have some crossover.”
This story was originally published October 22, 2020 at 12:47 PM.
