Kansas City is heading for record gun violence in 2022. Where’s the plan to stop it?

Kansas City is on pace to surpass the second deadliest year in its history. And it’s only May.

We’re hopeful the recent gun violence isn’t a harbinger of things to come. If so, it’s going to be a long, cruel summer. This level of gunplay cannot continue.

What’s the plan to address the violence? A comprehensive, multi-sector initiative explicitly aimed at gun violence would be helpful, criminologists say.

A collaborative, cooperative approach to crime prevention doesn’t hurt either.

In recent days, 19-year-old Andreone Hall was gunned down near a Kansas City high school, and in a separate incident about 24 hours later, two people were wounded in a nonfatal shooting close to the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus.

The same day, an unidentified man was found fatally shot inside a car near East 49th Street and Agnes Avenue.

On Thursday, a woman was found dead inside a vehicle that crashed into an apartment building near the Kansas City Police Department’s Central Patrol Division station in the 1200 block of Linwood Avenue.

The woman had been shot, police said. An infant inside the vehicle was not injured. A person of interest was taken into custody at the scene.

Violent criminals and their associates must be identified. Intervention is crucial. Young people in Kansas City need more opportunities to learn skills and trades to make a living, social justice advocates contend.

The city’s multilayered KC 4 Peace program to prevent violence is a start. It aims to fight crime by making physical improvements in neighborhoods with increased lighting and traffic-calming street design, collecting data, communicating with the public, and providing recreation and other activities for young people. Those between the ages of 18 and 24 are at highest risk for gun violence.

Mayor Quinton Lucas understands an inclusive approach to fighting crime is necessary, as do Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker and other elected officials.

Interim Kansas City Police Chief Joe Mabin has said he doesn’t want the job permanently. That hasn’t stopped him from coordinating weekly meetings with community stakeholders and Baker’s office. The outreach should ease tensions between the two agencies. Discord between former Police Chief Rick Smith and the county prosecutor played out in public. The rift did little to prevent violent crime.

Anything less than a collaborative, robust strategy to contain violence is unacceptable. Overpolicing the entire community isn’t the answer. A concentrated focus on the region’s worst offenders must continue.

Violent crime reduction is a long-term play, criminologists say. Kansas City must commit to one. The work cannot be done between warring factions. And the public must have a voice in the matter.

This week, the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce will announce the findings of its survey on what Kansas Citians want in the search for a new police chief. Will the Board of Police Commissioners listen? The board must be willing to hire a candidate unafraid to make meaningful changes, if the survey reflects that.

As of Friday, Kansas City had seen 63 homicide victims this year, according to police data. Only 33% of the cases have been cleared.

A lack of trust between police and residents in the urban core has not helped. Local control of the police department is an ongoing debate.

“If there is no trust from the community, we will not be able to solve crimes,” Lucas said.

Evidence-based approach has helped in Dallas

Last year, 157 people were killed, the city’s second deadliest in history. In 2020, a record 182 people were homicide victims in Kansas City, according to The Star’s tracker.

Homicides have spiked in three out of the last fours years. The upward trajectory should ring alarm bells for elected officials and community advocates alike.

Kansas City’s gun violence is a public health crisis and must be treated as such, health department officials have said. It’s up to each of us to play a role in lowering the rate of gun violence.

There’s no magic pill to stop the bloodshed in Kansas City, criminologists say. First step is to identify an evidence-based approach to crime prevention and commit to it for the long haul.

In other cities such as Dallas, evidence-based practices tend to work better in the long run, anti-crime advocates say. Police officials there recognize violence in general, and gun violence in particular, is concentrated among small groups of people within a close geographic area.

The same holds true in Kansas City, police department officials said. Without a publicly-announced coordinated effort on the books, brazen public shootings will likely continue.

Who are the people in Kansas City engaging in violent acts? Police, prosecutors, community advocates and other officials must work together to find out.

“We must identify folks in high risk places and focus resources there and the strategy will pay dividends in the long run,” UMKC criminal justice professor Ken Novak said.

Police officials must use their own intelligence and data to pinpoint problem areas, but they can’t do it in vacuum.

“You have to do it with the community,” Novak points out.

And what role does the collaborative approach deployed by Mabin, the interim chief, play in stopping the violence? We’ll find out in the coming months.