KANSAS CITY, KS (KCTV) -
Homicides, rapes, assaults and other violent crimes are down 14 percent in KCK.
Property crimes are also down. This is for the first eight months of 2012 compared to the first eight months of 2011.
KCK has seen the second lowest number of homicides in 32 years with four out of five being solved. KCK has seen 12 homicides this year.
And the KCK Police Department credits partnerships with citizens as among the key reasons for the decline.
"We will continue to build partnerships and collaboration with the community through police department citizen academics, neighborhood crime prevent patrol activities and community group involvement to better assist the public in resolving community problems related to crime," according to a news release from the police department.
Officers have targeted getting drug offenders and violent crime offenders off the streets. The District Attorney's Office has been successful in getting judges to set higher bonds for repeat violent offenders.
"The department as a whole has moved towards intelligence lead policing," according to the news release. "Instead of guessing where a crime may occur, we are now able to analyze recent and past activity and focus our attention on 'hot spots.'"
Officers also are more visible in neighborhoods and working more with federal agents.
Chief Rick Armstrong said focusing officers in "hot spots" is making a big difference. He said officers are now given meaningful information on where crimes are happening and who the potential suspects could be and when crimes could happen.
"I hope the message gets out that KCK is a safer city than it has been in the past 30 years and it's going in a good direction," Armstrong said.
Barbara Kiill is part of a neighborhood crime prevention patrol group and has been since 2003. She keeps an eye out for suspicious activity in the Turner area. She checks on her neighbors such as making sure a neighbor closes her garage door each night.
She was thrilled to learn that violent crime is down.
"I'm a lifelong WYCO resident and it really does my heart good to see this happening," she said. "We were having robberies and drug houses. We wanted to get them out of the neighborhood."
She said more residents are pitching in on crime fighting efforts.
"I think more and more people are helping us be aware of what's going on," she said. "And we are able to communicate this to the police department and they can take action."
Police Capt. Rance Quinn is in charge of a unit that gathers data to help commanders assign officers to targeted areas. He showed how the technology works to KCTV5.
"It gives men and women doing patrols from specialized staff information on where to go, when to be there and who to be looking for," Armstrong said.
Copyright 2012 KCTV (Meredith Corp.) All rights reserved.
