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 $500,000 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 will use Focused Deterrence, an evidence-based strategy to implement intervention and enforcement strategies from Kansas City’s PSP Strategic Plan. Key components of the project include improving violent crime response and prosecution 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: committing to a partnership of prosecutors, client advocates and a dedicated team of officers; ensuring that victims and witnesses of violent crime are promptly connected to culturally appropriate community-based services; launching a comprehensive messaging and outreach campaign; developing a long-term communications plan; hiring an analyst to complete crime analysis projects for KCPD; developing a strategy for collaborative data informed community engagement (DICE); and working with a researcher to ensure comprehensive project evaluation.