During a Board of Police Commissioners meeting on July 14, the Kansas City Police Department revealed their latest data. As of July 15, there have been 71 homicides compared to 89 around this time in 2025.
As of July 12, there had been 183 nonfatal shootings compared to 217 this time last year. Police department statistics do not take into account officer-involved shootings.
“There was a large increase to start the year and for most of 2026 we have been up compared to 2025,” said Captain Jacob Becchina of the Kansas City Police Department. “But on the strength of a nearly 50% reduction in June 2026, we are now down compared to last year”
Kansas City ended 2025 with 139 homicides, the lowest number in the last seven years, Becchina said, pointing to the “downward trend.” Bechina admits the problem is complex, and it's hard to identify one cause for the decrease but suggests the department's Crime Plan is a factor.
The plan, which was established in 2024, includes three primary strategies: Data-driven deployment, data-informed community engagement, and focused deterrence. This last element, Bechinna said, is probably the largest contributor.
“Essentially, it's you focus the most amount of your resources on the people that are the most prolific violent offenders and their associated groups,” he explained.
They implement this strategy in collaboration with several violence prevention groups, such as KC 360, Aim 4 Peace, and the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office's Save KC program.
“We have seen drastic reductions in the amount of homicide and nonfatal shootings of participants in this focused deterrence strategy," Jackson County prosecutor Melesa Johnson said. "(They) are considered to be amongst some of the most high-risk individuals in our community to be either victimized by violent crime or commit violent crime”
According to a report from Johnson's office, from May 2024 to August 2025, “Group-related homicides involving KCPD-identified violent group members as victims or suspects decreased 40%.”
The report further notes that nonfatal shootings dropped by 34% within that same time frame, Johnson said. She believes it's due at least in part to the same strategy.
Aim 4 Peace, which is also on the front lines in the effort to reduce violence, has seen significant decreases in homicides in neighborhoods formerly known for high crime. Rashid Junaid manages the Division of Behavioral Health and Injury Prevention at the Kansas City Health Department. He helps oversee Aim 4 Peace operations.
“I think when they first reignited their intervention in 2022, 2023, they were having, like, nine homicides in (those areas), so now they have zero in Santa Fe, and they had, like, 22 in the Oak Park neighborhood association, and now they have zero," Junaid said. “And so, I think that has an impact.”
There have also been high arrest and conviction rates according to Becchina. The department is witnessing a historic clearance rate, or number of crimes solved.
“As of today, our clearance rate sits at 85%,” Becchina said. “And that's an important number because the national average hovers somewhere around 55%, maybe 60%. So we're as much as 25% better than the national average in that number of clearances.”
