When warning of a mass shooting came, KCPD was in a ‘blackout.’ What does that mean?
Before May’s mass shooting broke out at a Kansas City nightclub, owner Mario Williams called the police repeatedly.
He told dispatchers that armed men were gathering outside the Klymax Lounge, and security guard Jason McConnell needed backup.
But after one dropped call, Williams says, Kansas City Police Department dispatchers told him the department was experiencing a “blackout” — a scenario wherein no officers are nearby to respond to an emergency.
The dispatcher categorized the situation as non-urgent, and said police would only be able to respond if there was an active emergency.
Twenty minutes later, a shooting broke out that killed three people and severely injured two more. McConnell, the security guard, was among those killed.
The police department’s blackout may have cost lives — Williams says that even one officer arriving on the scene may have de-escalated the situation and prevented the deadly shooting.
But blackouts also prevent officers from other precincts from responding to low-priority calls — and local authorities told The Star that they don’t keep track of how often, or for how long, these blackout conditions occur.
What is a police blackout?
A blackout is a set of conditions under which officers are in short supply and will only respond to calls from other precincts if dispatchers determine they are urgent, a Kansas City police spokesperson told The Star.
“Blackout is a term that is used to indicate that there are not any available officers to send on a call at that exact moment in time,” Sgt. Jacob Becchina said. “It is used in conjunction with a request for a car to make themselves available… as soon as possible.”
In order for the department to dispatch officers during a blackout, the call must reach a priority level high enough that immediate assistance is needed. If none are available in the area, dispatchers may look for officers in other precincts who can respond.
A spokesperson for the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department said they have “never heard of” blackout policies — but their methods for determining the severity of a call are similar to their Missouri counterparts.
“When calls come into dispatch, they are assigned a level of priority,” department spokesperson Nancy Chartrand told The Star. “If there is a major case in one district and calls for service are light in another, officers can be dispatched from one district to another.”
Both Chartrand and Becchina indicated that once officers are actively responding to a call, they will not be sent elsewhere until they have “cleared” it — a police term meaning that they have completed their response.
This means that even if there is a serious emergency waiting for officers, they will need to “clear” their current assignment before they can address it.
How often do blackouts happen in Kansas City?
Becchina at the Kansas City Police Department told The Star that the department does not track the time, length or location of blackouts.
He said that they “are not tracked on a moment to moment basis and they are not tabulated,” although the department’s heaviest call volumes are typically seen on evenings and weekends.
Eric Winebrenner, the public safety program director for the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC), added that regional data doesn’t exist for blackout scenarios.
While MARC tracks 911 call volumes and answering times around the metro, he said it does not track the time individual agencies take to respond to these calls once they are answered.
How do dispatchers decide where to send police?
KCPD patrol procedures state that “two (2) or more officers will be dispatched to incidents where the likelihood for danger and/or violence exists.”
Beyond this, the department uses a numerical system to determine the urgency of calls.
Priority 1: This level is for scenarios that present “extreme,” “known” or “potential” danger to human life.
Priority 2: This level is for “calls where the potential for danger/injuries to occur exists, but has not yet happened.” Examples given include “prowlers” and “disturbances.”
Priority 3: This level is for “calls which are not life-threatening but require a timely police response.”
One example listed is a 911 hangup call, which the department also received from Williams moments before his call reporting the armed men.
However, Becchina said this call never made it into the department’s system.
“If (a call) is abandoned, it doesn’t make it to the call taker to obtain the data needed to create a 911 hangup call,” he told The Star.
Priority 4: This level is for calls that “do not present any immediate danger to human life.”
According to department policy, “priority 4 calls will be dispatched when a division officer becomes available.”
This is the level assigned to Williams’ call shortly before the shooting.
Priority 5: This is the lowest level of urgency, for incidents in which “a delayed response of police to the scene of the incident will not detract from the quality of investigation or service to the person.”
According to these definitions, calls in the Priority 1, 2 and 3 categories are considered to need an immediate police response.
But police dispatchers assigned the report of armed men gathering outside the Klymax Lounge before May’s shooting a Priority 4, which police only respond to when a nearby officer becomes available.
At just one level higher, officers may have been sent to the club before the shooting began.
Do you have more questions about how local police respond to emergencies? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.
This story was originally published July 31, 2023 at 1:51 PM.
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