Kansas City Missouri Police

Prosecutor Melesa Johnson’s office is supporting a state bill that would add animal control officers to the list of those who must report any suspected child or elder abuse. Animal abuse is seen as a “predictor crime” for potential violence toward people.

A surveillance video of Brady being shot point-blank in the parking lot of his Brookside restaurant last year was shown at a juvenile court hearing Tuesday. Brady’s family was watching via webcam from Ireland, and his wife sat in the last row of the courtroom.

So far this year, Kansas City has recorded 12 homicides related to domestic violence – which was the total attributed to the problem last year. There wasn’t a single contributing factor, but Mayor Quinton Lucas cited the large number of guns in the city.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department will no longer be under the control of the mayor’s office and instead will be overseen by a governor-appointed board. It's similar to the Confederate-era system that manages Kansas City Police.

Placing the St. Louis Police Department under a state-appointed board has been a priority for Gov. Mike Kehoe. The Republican governor said that removing local control will improve safety, despite the evidence in Kansas City, whose police is already under a similar system.

The legislation would take away control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department from the mayor’s office to a board mainly appointed by the governor. It's a structure similar to the Civil War-era system that manages the Kansas City Police Department.

Sharon Kinne, who fled Kansas City in 1964 after being acquitted of two murders, was the subject of one of the longest outstanding murder warrants in the area. She was convicted of another murder in Mexico in 1964, escaped from prison in 1969 and died in 2022 in Canada.

Melesa Johnson, 35, will be sworn in as Jackson County's prosecutor on Friday. She says she will keep some of Baker's policies, tweak others and offer her own.

The homicide rate dipped to the lowest number in the last six years, said Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves. But the number of people who were shot and survived increased by nearly 12%, leaving hundreds of people with gunshot wounds.

Gwendolyn Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, said her colleagues and community members are outraged that Missouri Gov. Mike Parson freed former KCPD detective Eric DeValkenaere last week.

Eric DeValkenaere, who has been in prison for a year and two months, was released at mid-day on Friday, in time to be home for Christmas as his wife had asked of Gov. Mike Parson. The family of Cameron Lamb, the 26-year-old Black man DeValkenaere killed, had long feared Parson would free the former police detective.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said she's faced threats and criticism for her decisions over the years — especially over the prosecution of ex-KCPD officer Eric DeValkenaere. She spoke with KCUR's Up To Date about her 13 years as the county’s top prosecutor, and the consequences the job had on her and her family.