KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City, Missouri, experienced its deadliest year on record in 2023. A total of 182 homicides were recorded.
But violence has plagued the city for years.
"If violence claims one life in our city, everyone should be concerned and they should ask themselves what they can do to stop violent crime," KCPD Chief Stacey Graves said.
Of the homicides, Graves said 67 families are without loved ones "because an argument turned violent."
The complete breakdown of homicides is as follows:
- Domestic violence (22)
- Retaliation (18)
- Drugs (21)
- Robberies turned deadly (15)
- Victims 17 years old or younger (19)
- All but 20 homicides involved a firearm
KCMO Mayor Quinton Lucas said he’s seen the issue first-hand for as long as he’s been a Kansas Citian (over 40 years).
On Wednesday, Lucas stood beside Graves as she addressed how the department plans to tackle violence in 2024.
2024 promises
Graves said KCPD is a "highly trained professional police force made up of men and women who are invested in the betterment of our city."
As such, the force delivers "top-notch service" when it comes to community engagement and enforcement, per Graves.
And with a change to an 11-hour shift on Jan. 21, Graves said more officers will be deployed in the street at peak times to help reduce response times and "provide more opportunities to proactively address crime issues."
She said using an evidence-based focused strategy is just one portion of the department's written violence crime plan that outlines violence reduction strategies.
Focused deterrence calls in groups of people identified to be engaging in criminal activity provides a choice to face charges or receive help from resources.
Adding patrols to areas where violence saw an increase, like the Northeast, is also part of the prevention plan's focus on enforcement.
“Enforcement is a part of it. Those that choose to do violence in KC need to be held accountable," Graves said.
Staffing issues
While the department is technically slated to have 1,400 officers, Graves said there are only 1,100 on the force.
"We are funded for 1,250 — we don’t ask for more money than the officers that we think we can hire in one year," Graves said.
In her over 25 years on the force, Graves said the department last neared 1,400 officers in 2019.
Salary specifics were not disclosed, the mayor and chief said the city will “pay real money” to ensure proper compensation.
On top of staffing issues, Graves said the city jail lacks adequate space.
Moving forward, Graves stressed the department is hiring, and she encouraged any interested Kansas Citians to step up and serve their community.
Focus on collaboration
Both Lucas and Graves repeatedly brought up the city’s focus on collaboration to initiate change.
“When you look at other cities with [more] positive results than we did this year, a lot of it relates to collaboration," Lucas said. "It relates to us working together, it relates to us making sure there isn’t just one source of solutions, but we are working across our community."
Lucas said there must be communication between school districts, patrol officers, community engagement division workers, social workers "and beyond."
“This year in KC, we had a shooting at a bar where there had been dozens of police calls. In essence, the police did their jobs coming time and time again," Lucas said. "There were dozens of code violations, dozens of neighbors that had issues for some time. Sometimes this is a requirement for the city to step up; it might be the schools being a part of it, our medical partners. That’s what we talk about now in collaborative partners and work.”
History of violence
Graves said the city “didn’t arrive here overnight" to a year of record violence.
KC's history of violence has led to studying the efforts of other similar-sized cities, like Omaha, Nebraska, and Des Moines, Iowa.
But Graves and Lucas said Kansas City is a much larger area than Omaha or Des Moines and has its own unique needs.
"When you compare KC to other cities, each one of our cities has unique challenges," Graves said. "We do pay attention to what other cities are doing and what works. KC is a major city. I meet with my peer chiefs, I listen to what they have that’s working to reduce violent crime, but I have to apply that here to our challenges in KC.”
However, Lucas did note the city is paying attention to the success of St. Louis and Baltimore in decreasing crime in 2023.
Graves said while she believes police are part of the solution, change also starts at home to break generational violence.
"When you look at parts of our city that have experienced decades of violence, some of the children who’ve grown up in that environment have been exposed to trauma," Graves said.
Accountability
Graves promised as the department tests different ideas, she won’t wait all year to change course.
"I’m not going to wait until December 2024 to say, 'This doesn’t work,'" she said. "If there’s something that we are doing that doesn’t see results, we will pivot to something that does."
In February, an academy class will graduate. And in March, Graves hopes to see one of the biggest recruit classes yet begin academy training.
Full press conference
—
