Creation of special non-fatal shooting squad to increase clearance rates, Commnications plan, and implementation of DICE strategies to further PSP strategic plan.

The City of Kansas City, Missouri, requests $500,00 in
grant funding through the National Public Safety Partnership
(PSP) Capacity Building Grant Program to advance the
goals of our PSP strategic plan with a focus on enhancing
our capacity to respond to, investigate, and intervene
nonfatal shootings. The intended service area for the
proposed project is Kansas City, which is home to more than
500,000 residents. Kansas City’s engagement with the PSP
program has primarily focused on addressing gun violence.
Kansas City’s average annual homicide rate is three times
the statewide rate, and despite comprising less than 8
percent of the state’s population, Kansas City accounts for
almost a quarter of Missouri’s criminal homicides.
Clearance rates for homicides are on track with the national
average, but Kansas City has a low clearance rate for
nonfatal shootings, meaning that offenders continue to
commit violent crimes, and trust between the community
and law enforcement is fractured even further.
The proposed project will be implemented in partnership
with the Kansas City Police Department (KCPD), the
Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office (JCPO), and several
community-based organizations. The project is focused on
implementing both intervention and enforcement strategies
from Kansas City’s PSP Strategic Plan. Key components of
the project include improving nonfatal shooting
investigation and response procedures, improving public
perception of law enforcement, engaging the community in
violence interventions, and advancing the use of crime data
analytics to better understand and respond to the gun
violence crisis. Proposed activities include: assembling a
highly qualified nonfatal shooting (NFS) “A-Team”
comprised of investigators, detectives, prosecutors, and
client advocates; enhancing evidence collection practices for
NFS crime scenes; expediting the prosecution of NFS cases
using the grand jury process; ensuring that victims and
witnesses of NFS are promptly connected to culturally
appropriate community-based services; launching a
comprehensive messaging and outreach campaign;
developing a long-term communications plan; hiring a coanalyst to complete priority crime analysis projects for
KCPD and JCPO; developing a strategy for collaborative
data informed community engagement (DICE); and working
with the University of Missouri, Kansas City, to ensure
comprehensive project evaluation.