KSHB 41 reporter La’Nita Brooks covers stories providing solutions and offering discussions on topics of crime and violence. Share your story idea with La’Nita.
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Nothing is solved overnight, including violence in Kansas City, Missouri, but one group believes they have a formula for success to address the problem.
KC United for Public Safety has a five-year plan to get it under control.
Mayor Quinton Lucas was in attendance.
“Step one is committing to making sure people work together,” Lucas said. “In that room today, you have police, you have people who don’t want the police around, you have people who are prosecutors, you have people who have been prosecuted. And what I think we’re doing with all of it is saying we all want the same things, safe streets.”
The room was filled with multiple Kansas City leaders and community members taking turns sharing their roles in this collaborative effort.
The group rolled out phase one of their plan, which includes prevention, intervention, and sustainability measures.
- Prevention: Youth Opportunities, mentoring
- Prevention: Village Strategy/Neighborhoods
- Intervention: Direct Intervention
- Reentry: Returning Citizens
- Sustainability: Policy/Funding-Phase II and Phase III
They are also looking to address first responder staffing shortages and the 911 crisis.
“We’re trying to look at data and working with different groups to find creative ways that we can address this especially given staffing concerns with the police department,” Lace Cline, director of public safety at the Mayor’s office, said.
A heavy focus is on reaching the youth. Youth offenders are 24 and under.
Community outreach specialist Pat Clarke says to solve the problem, you must get to the root of it.
“This is a good conversation but the people that we need to be talking to ain’t here,” Clarke said. “If the problem is in the streets, then the work is in the streets.”
The goal is to have homicides under 100 in five years.
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