by Mary Wilson
The entire country is feeling the heat this summer, and not
just because of the rising temperatures. Violence has impacted every community,
including Kansas City.
“In July of 2016, it is a hard time to talk about violence
reduction,” Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said to a crowded room
of community members.
The South Kansas City Alliance on Monday evening hosted
Peters Baker, along with County Executive Frank White, Sheriff Mike Sharp and
Legislator Dan Tarwater, to provide county-wide updates that may have an effect
on South KC.
“There are some prosecutors and some police officers that
think that violence is just something we have to accept and that there’s
nothing we can do about it,” said Peters Baker. “That’s just wrong.”
Since becoming prosecutor, Peters Baker has made an effort
to expand the partnership between her office, the police and into the community
with pastors, neighborhood associations and citizens. They have called upon the
help of the metro as a whole to engage in the effort of violence reduction,
creating the No Violence Alliance, or NoVA.
“It can feel like a tough time right now,” said Peters
Baker. “We are all feeling the weight and the burden of violence in our city
and in our country. I don’t believe that there is nothing we can do about
violence.”
She added that because violence has been looked at through a
particular scope for so long, other options have been neglected for reducing
violence. Prosecutors and law enforcement continue to look for ways to engage
the community.
“We have to own, as law enforcement officers, that we have
lost some of the public’s trust,” said Peters Baker. “We want to build it back
through real programs that really help, that are credible and that are designed
to help neighborhoods help themselves.”
In 2014, at the infant stages of the NoVA, Jackson County’s
homicide level was reduced to a 40-year low. Some ground was lost, according to
Peters Baker, when the Ferguson case happened, which shifted some focus and
some credibility that was being established.
“I know that there is far more that unites us than divides
us, even on our worst day,” said Peters Baker. “We are Americans and we have
faced tough times before. We have looked in the face of strife, faced it and
moved through it a stronger country. We are in the middle of a heated debate,
but sometimes that can take us to a better place if we listen.”
White added that now is the time to make some positive
changes in the community, and the County has made efforts to promote positive
quality of life experiences for everyone, including parks, trails and other
county assets.
“If we make it important to us, it becomes important to
those around us,” said White. “I’m not a big status quo guy, and as an elected
official, I don’t have the time to make big changes. You have to go in and make
your points clear, be able to delegate and get out of the way and let your
people do their jobs.”
Tarwater suggested that community members reach out to the
county legislators to voice concerns and share interests. It is the
legislature’s job to then find ways to implement programs and other suggestions
in the county.
“Your needs are the needs of Jackson County,” said Tarwater.
“We look at ways, probably for the past ten years or more, to do more with
less.”
He added that the money tied into the drug prevention
programming all ties into violence reduction. While some may argue that the
county doesn’t have the best solutions in place to combat drugs and violence,
Tarwater suggested coming up with alternatives and looking at different
options.
“I want to hear about it; we all do,” said Tarwater. “That’s
how we find out what works.”
Sharp, who formerly worked for the Kansas City Police
Department, said that since he became Sheriff, he has worked to unite the law
enforcement departments. He added that there was a “turf” war between
departments.
“I don’t step on your turf, you don’t step on mine.
Criminals don’t live by that rule; they travel,” said Sharp. “We now work very
closely with the Kansas City Police Department, Lee’s Summit, all of the local
agencies.”
The Sheriff’s department has become a support unit for the
other agencies when they are low on manpower, such as during the World Series.
Sharp also sits on the Governor-appointed board that oversees statewide drug
task force dollars.
“The Jackson County Drug Task Force, funded by COMBAT, and
the drug task force through the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners, are
the two top-rated drug task force units in the state,” said Sharp. “We recover
more narcotics and more money than all other drug task forces combined.”
Sharp added that without tax support and support from local
police departments, that would not have been possible.
The panel was united in the county’s efforts to reduce
violence, and all spoke of garnering feedback from the community. More
information on NoVA, COMBAT and the legislature’s priorities can be found on www.jacksongov.org.
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