Kansas City recorded its second highest rate of homicides in 2022, but a new program is underway with hopes of reducing violent crime in the metro.
Partners for Peace — a collaboration between Kansas City, Missouri, Jackson County Combat, Kansas City Police Department, community leaders and more than a dozen social service providers — is working to intervene and prevent retaliatory crime.
An earlier collaboration, KC NoVA, received national attention after reducing crime in Kansas City, but that program ended in 2019.
Melesa Johnson, head of Partners for Peace, says a lack of trust between community members and the KCPD have strained previous efforts to reduce violent crime.
"We now have a police department that is willing to share information with civilians so that we can actually deploy social service agencies at victims of non-fatal shootings and families," Johnson told KCUR's Up To Date.
Since its inception, Partners for Peace has referred 150 individuals for intervention services.
"We know we have a lot of work to earn the community's trust and we are absolutely willing to do that," says Johnson.
If Kansas City voters in April approve the city's proposed 3% sales tax on recreational marijuana, a portion of the revenue generated will be used to fund the program.
Baker and Johnson joined Up To Date to explain how the outreach program will work.
- Melesa Johnson, leads Partners for Peace, deputy chief of staff to Kansas City mayor
- Jean Peters Baker, prosecutor, Jackson County, Missouri
