Sam Zeff
Metro ReporterJob Title: Metro Reporter
Contact: sam@kcur.org
Topic Expertise: Organized crime, police misconduct, politics, heat stroke
Location: Kansas City, Missouri
Geographic Expertise: Kansas and Missouri
Language: English
Honors & Awards: National News and Information Emmy for investigative reporting. Four National Headliner Awards. Four Edward R. Murrow awards. Numerous local Emmys from Philadelphia, Kansas City and Minneapolis.
Memberships: National Association of Black Journalists; Journalism and Women Symposium
About Sam
As KCUR’s metro reporter, Sam holds public officials accountable. He track downs malfeasance by seeking open records and court documents, and by building relationships across the city.
A Kansas native, Sam spent 17 years in Philadelphia covering the mob, political corruption, politics and police.
He ran the special projects and investigative unit at WCCO, the CBS owned station in Minneapolis. He also served as the assistant news director and investigative executive produce at KCTV, the CBS station in Kansas City. He worked as assistant news director responsible for investigations at KSTP, the ABC station in Minneapolis.
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The National Weather Service has posted an extreme heat warning for the metro for most of the week. Expect the heat index to hit at least 105 degrees every day. -
With an estimated 94,000 automated license plate readers in America, police and federal agents can almost track your movements from coast to coast. The cameras have been controversial in cities like Lenexa, Kansas, and Weston, Missouri, and misused by law enforcement in cities across both states. -
All 1,100 Kansas City police officers are on duty, there are cops from 11 states helping and KCPD's three helicopters are constantly in the air. The city has been mostly peaceful, with the major exception of a string of shootings along highways before the Argentina-Algeria match. That suspect was found dead by police on Wednesday. -
The FBI said the local and state drone task force has detected 14 illegal flights in just the first week of World Cup festivities in Kansas City. -
The star wide receiver served his sentence at the Dallas County Jail after violating his probation. Rice pleaded guilty last July to two felonies connected to a high-speed crash in a Dallas that injured four people, and then later violated his probation. -
The plane included 11 skydivers and a pilot, all of whom died in the the crash. -
The city settled with the parents of Maria Pike, who was the mother of 12-week-old Destinii Hope, and with Destinii's father. Their attorney says it's the largest settlement in a police brutality case ever in Missouri. -
The Kansas City Police Department says there was a 200% jump in cocaine seizures in 2025. KCPD says it was warned to anticipate a spike as the World Cup approaches. -
Manny Abarca, now running for Jackson County executive, was banned from Paseo Academy for one academic year for violating a Kansas City Public Schools policy that requires “appropriate behavior” by guests. -
The size of the settlement has not been made public.
