Police got 116 calls to this KC business in a year. What the city is doing about it now
The city is taking steps to shut down an unlicensed business that Kansas City police have been called to 116 times in the past year.
One of the calls to Up in Smoke, located at 3710 Independence Avenue, was a shooting on Sunday. A man was shot and transported to a local hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, said Sgt. Phil DiMartino, a spokesman for the Kansas City Police Department.
No arrests have been made, and the case remains active.
Another was a triple shooting in December that left a 20-year-old woman dead.
The smoke shop has been operating without a license since at least December 2022, according to a letter from the city to owner Elvin Boone.
The business was open Thursday afternoon. A handful of patrons were in the shop, including a couple people who were playing at electronic gambling machines. Two employees behind the counter at the shop declined to comment. At a second location, which is licensed, Boone through an employee declined to comment.
Last summer, the city’s Multidisciplinary Public Safety Task Force began identifying businesses with a high number of 311 complaints or violent incidents to make safer, with the aim of keeping them operational. The group held several canvassing events, including one along Independence Avenue last year.
“This is the sort of intervention, this is the sort of work that needs to be done,” Mayor Quinton Lucas said at the event.
The group identified Up in Smoke as a “high-risk” location for criminal activity.
The task force, composed of representatives from Lucas’ office and city agencies including the police department, health department and Regulated Industries, among others, visited the shop in November.
The city’s division of revenue sent a cease and desist letter to Boone in mid-March saying the business was operating without the proper license.
“While Kansas City’s businesses are vital to our community, any business operating illegally or allowing illegal activity to persist and endanger lives, will not be tolerated in Kansas City,” said Jazzlyn Johnson, a spokesperson for Lucas.
Boone applied for the license in late March, but the revenue department rejected his application.
It said in an April 15 letter that police had been called to the location dozens of times for disturbances, alleged drug use and armed incidents. The letter also said the shop was selling liquor without the required license and adult toys outside of the area where such sales are allowed.
“There is no place in Kansas City for this type of reckless behavior and the city will not hesitate to address businesses that ignore the law and create havens for violent, unlawful activity,” Johnson said.
She continued, adding that the task force’s partnerships will make the community safer “one block at a time.”
The owner can contest the city’s decision, and a hearing has been scheduled for May 1.
Last summer, the city revoked the business license of an auto shop that authorities said was operating as an “after hours” nightclub when a shooting left three people dead and six others wounded.
The Star’s Bill Lukitsch contributed to this story.
