Jackson County Prosecutor shares accomplishments, outlines priorities for 2026
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Johnson prioritized accountability, raised case filings and increased convictions.
- Office logged 73% filing rate in 2025 and near 70% overall conviction rate.
- Johnson plans defendant survey, diversion expansion and a grant expungement program.
Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson said her first year in office was about accountability and re-establishing a code of conduct in the community.
“If you commit harm, if you violate other individuals’ peace, you will have to answer to the Jackson County prosecutor’s office,” Johnson said earlier this week during the South Kansas City Alliance monthly meeting.
Johnson shared the results of her first year in office report with community members, citing her desire for the office to charge more cases and increase conviction rates.
But despite citing the numbers and highlighting those shared by previous speakers from the Kansas City Police Department, Johnson said that she was sure perception didn’t feel like crime was down.
“You’re not wrong,” Johnson said. “But data tells one part of the story, and your daily experience tells another. And the fact is, both are true, we made progress, but we still have a lot of work to do.”
In 2025, the prosecutor’s office had a 73 percent case filing rate and a conviction rate at nearly 70 percent, Johnson said, with homicide conviction rates reaching nearly 90 percent.
Johnson said that there have been incidents where her office dismissed prosecutions, citing a lack of evidence, but also focusing on the expansion of self-defense laws in Missouri.
Since the beginning of the year, Johnson said her office has met with state lawmakers to discuss some of the challenges prosecutors often face due to the state law. Johnson said that she is hoping that changes in the law could make some cases easier to prosecute.
Johnson highlighted that her office has also charged the largest number of criminal cases in the state last year for Blair’s Law, a law making celebratory gunfire illegal. The law was named in honor of 11-year-old Blair Shanahan-Lane who was killed in Kansas City.
In 2026, Johnson said she wants to focus on the root causes of crime, starting with a defendant survey, as well as investing more into diversion programs and starting a grant-funded expungement program.
“Over the past three years, the state of Missouri has greatly expanded the list of expungable offenses, and the reason why it’s important?,” Johnson said. “Barrier reduction helps people get access to housing, get access to jobs, which makes them less likely to commit crime in the future.”
