Kansas City Police Department

Officials are pursuing the change after learning that the city’s public safety sales tax would not cover an all-new jail and other key projects as planned.

As we enter the third quarter of 2026, the Kansas City Police Department has reported 108 homicides, a five-year low for the department. Police credit the drop to more cops on the street, focused deterrence and collaboration with the community.

At the first of five public listening sessions across the city, Kansas City residents gathered in a Northland community center to express their opinions about a new KCPD chief.

The Board of Police Commissioners has announced a series of five public hearings across Kansas City to give residents an opportunity to say what they’d like to see in their new chief. The first is Thursday, Oct. 15 in the Northland.

At the end of July, Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves announced that she is retiring from her role leading the department after four years. She joined KCUR’s Up To Date to look back at her time as the first woman to serve permanently as KCPD chief, and to discuss the department’s future.

With Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves retiring after four years, leaders around the metro say the next top cop will need to build on progress in addressing violent crime and repairing police-community relationships. They also want the Board of Police Commissioners to open the hiring process more to the public.

Graves has served the department for more than 29 years, and is the first woman named permanent police chief of the KCPD.

Over the last three years, Kansas City Police Department statistics show a decrease in both homicides and nonfatal shootings. Police and community partners attribute the drop to a combination of preventive tactics.

Work crews were up early Sunday morning clearing away Fan Fest from the grounds of the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City. The city hosted its final World Cup match on Saturday, when Argentina defeated Switzerland.

Kansas City’s 2024 gun homicide rate of 24.6 per 100,000 people ranked among the worst of U.S. cities. That stands in sharp contrast to the countries with teams based in the city for the World Cup — England, Argentina, the Netherlands and Algeria.

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 school’s decision to appoint former Kansas City police officer Daniel Graves has been met with opposition from students, who say they don’t feel safe due to his past support for Eric DeValkenaere, a former KCPD detective who was convicted of killing a man.