The KC CALL

Rather, A Model Of What NOT To Do

Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Director Steven Dettelbach was in Kansas City recently and had an opportunity to observe how Kansas City, Mo. Police battle against violent crime and gun violence.

At press time Kansas City stands at 162 homicides. Two of those homicides took place while he was here. One while he was safely asleep in his hotel room.

Crime scene tape was being placed around two locations during his visit.

He was asked to come here by Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas to discuss ways the ATF can partner with the city, particularly in light of the new Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which expands background checks and provides funding for prevention programs.

While he was here he had the opportunity to observe three of the City's concepts that are suppose to fight against gun violence.

One program is the ballistic database analysis known as “crime gun intelligence.”

Another is a weekly meeting, known as a “weekly shoot review” with city, county, state and federal law enforcement for data sharing to catch and prosecute offenders.

A third is a program called Partners for Peace. It's a discussion after the weekly shooting review to determine which of 26 social service agencies should be deployed for each shooting whether fatal or non-fatal.

At press time Kansas City stands at 162 homicides.

One of the startling aspects outside of the murders that took place while he was here was his statement, “Things are already happening here that I think other cities and other communities will try to copy, as they should,” Dettelbach said.

In layman's terms that statement means that Kansas City is a “model” when it comes to fighting violent crime. I'm speechless given the fact that the City has recorded the second highest homicide total in Kansas City's history at 162 and the year isn't even over yet.

He reached this conclusion based upon the KCPD propaganda sheet also known as the “Daily Homicide Analysis sheet.

At press time Kansas City stands at 162 homicides.

According to the propaganda sheet KCPD has a clearance rate of over 51 percent of the homicides of record. However, under that calculation those numbers may include homicides that may have taken place last year, or the year before or maybe even five years ago. The more accurate number is more like 41.5 percent according to data obtained by THE CALL.

Police even boast that 35 cases are at the Prosecutor's office a number that they refute and have asked for move of a drill down as to how Police came up with that number?

The reality is that people in the Black community want to know about is the number of homicides solved this year. Of the 162 homicides how many are solved and in the prosecutor's office. How many families can move closer to closure knowing that their loved one's murderer is closer to being held accountable.

At press time Kansas City stands at 162 homicides.

In spite of the “model approach” KCPD has solved fewer non-fatal shootings this year than last year and far below the national average. They are at 10 percent solved compared to 18 percent last year.

Although all of the information that Police share looks good on paper, but there is one statistic that hasn't changed and that is the toxic relationship between the Kansas City, Mo., Police department and Kansas Citians within the Black community.

Over the past several months two Police officers have plead guilty to assaulting one of the citizens they are paid to protect and serve. Another Police officer was found guilty of killing one of its citizens and then trying to set that person up to justify the shooting.

Not to mention all of the lawsuits that Police have settled that ranges well into the millions.

Citizens have also shared they want to share information with Police concerning a non-fatal shooting only to not be called back because initially they may not have had a comment when the shooting first happened.

A Kansas Citian residing within the Black community would probably say the KCPD is probably a better model of what not to do rather than a model of what to do. The problem is those programs engage AFTER a homicide is committed, not before.

Editorial

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2022-12-09T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-09T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://kccallnews.pressreader.com/article/281642489210041

Kansas City CALL Newspaper Inc