Ingram’s January 2023

Putting ‘Safe’ Back into Public Safety

Kansas City’s new chief of police offers broad brush strokes on a strategy to reduce crime.

by Dennis Boone

J ust days after her appointment as Kansas City’s new chief of police—and with the clock ticking down on a year that produced 171 homicides in the city—Stacey Graves made a special appearance at Ingram’s , accompanied by executives from various law-enforcement-oriented organizations, business leaders and non-profit groups working to crack the riddle on violent crime in the city. In a nearly two-hour discussion, she laid out a broad vision for increasing the department’s engagement with residents, particularly in the handful of neighbor-hoods that account for a distressingly disproportionate share of calls for police response. Among those around the table were representatives of non-profits like KC Common Good, the police foundation, sponsors of youth-focused activities, and other interests who, like the department itself, have been grasping for solutions. It’s clear, though, that if Kansas City wants to return to a pre-2020 dynamic in terms of violent crime incidents, the city’s leadership is going to have to step up to the plate with funding to rebuild a department devastated by resignations and early retirements, in addition to normal levels of attrition. With the officer count down close to 1,100—when a fully-staffed department would have 1,350 officers or more—street officers and investigators alike are out numbered as never before in the past half-century. Graves hopes to change that by rebuilding relationships with those controlling the purse strings at City Hall, with the prosecutor’s office, and with neighborhood leaders who no longer believe an effective police response is possible in some parts of the city. She could only have been heartened then to hear of outside initiatives focused on attacking crime through the use of empirical data—information that identifies the crime hot spots and allows public and private resources to be applied in response. One example: KC360 and KC Common Good’s Darren Faulkner explaining how a laser focus on problem bus stops could produce measurable improvements in public safety. He also noted that a deeper dive into crime statistics revealed that the vast majority of violent crime in the city was, in fact, confined to a geographic area of just a few blocks. But Graves was clear on one point: Even with more funding and more officers, the Kansas City Police Department can’t solve the riddle on its own and never could. Fixing what’s ailing the streets of this city will require successful collaborations with business owners, residents, and neighborhood organizations. 1. Chief Stacey Graves said the KCPD would more actively seek collaborations with business leaders to help reduce overall crime rates. | 2. Terry Dunn, former CEO of JE Dunn Construction, is now pressing for more corporate engagement on public-safety issues through KC Common Good, which he founded. | 3. As program manager for KC Common Good and KC360, Darren Faulkner outlined a number of strategies to disrupt criminal behavior. | 4. Pete Smith said his Plaza-based law firm hasn’t seen a significant police presence, and that Plaza security itself wasn’t meeting the needs of either tenants or patrons. Other participants include: Jeff Simon, Husch Blackwell/KC Common Good; Lisa Krigston and Karl Zobrist, Dentons; Tye Grant, Police Foundation of KC; Jake Becchina, KCPD; Matt Tomasic, Police Athletic League KCK; Skip Cox, Police Athletic League KCMO; Warren Erdman, Kansas City Southern; Kelly Specht, Carl’s Cause; Dennis Boone, Ingram’s; Michelle and Joe Sweeney, Ingram’s.

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I n g r a m ’ s

January 2023

Ingrams.com