Homicide numbers reach all-time high

By John Sharp

Unfortunately, KCMO appears likely to again set an all-time record for the annual number of homicides this year, or to come very close to it.

The current record for annual homicides in our city was set in 2020 with 179.  As of December 5 of that year there had been 172 homicides.  By that date this year there had already been 173 homicides.

Last year was a little better with 170 homicides for the year and 161 by December 5.  In 2021 there were only 157 homicides for the year, and only 151 in 2019.

So far this year, as in all recent years, firearms were the overwhelming means of attack, with firearms accounting for 161 of the homicides.  Knives were used in 12 homicides.

Of this year’s victims, 116 (67%) were Black males, 15 (9%) were Black females, 20 (12%) were White males, 7 (4%) were White females; 13 (8%) were Hispanic males and 1 (1%) was classified as an American Indian or Pacific Islander.

A total of 18 (10%) of this year’s victims were children or youth 17 and younger, 38 (22%) were from 18 to 24, 42 (24%) were 25 to 34, 41 (24%) were 35 to 44 and 34 (20%) were 45 and older.

In both the Central and Metro Patrol Divisions, the number of homicides as of December 5 this year was the highest for the last five years – although not by much – with 35 homicides so far this year in Central and 51 in Metro.  East Patrol has had the highest number of homicides this year of any of the patrol divisions with 68, although it had even more in 2020 with 76 by that date.

As of December 5, South Patrol this year has only had 11 homicides, down from 16, 21 and 20 respectively for the last three years.  It only had 8 by that date in 2019.

The two patrol divisions north of the Missouri River – North Patrol and Shoal Creek – had no more than seven homicides each by December 5 in any of the last five years.  There were either two or three homicides by that date every year for North Patrol and from two to seven in Shoal Creek.

Our homicide rate per capita is not “normal” for big cities and should not be tolerated.  We can do much better!

For instance, Omaha – a city nearly identical in size to KCMO with similar demographics – through December 6 of this year only had 27 homicides, just 15.6% of the 173 homicides we suffered through December 5.

Omaha only had 30 homicides for all of 2022.

Besides the tragic impact on victims and their families and friends, our high homicide rate hinders our ability to attract and retain residents and businesses.

HomeSnack, a Raleigh, NC, organization founded in 2015 “to provide insights your real estate agent would neglect to mention” about locations in cities throughout the nation that boasts of having over 100 million unique visitors since its founding, on November 7 included KCMO in its list labeled “Murder Capitols of America for 2023”.  It ranked our city as having the 15th highest per capita murder rate in the nation among cities with populations over 100,000.

It listed St. Louis City as having the nation’s highest per capita murder rate and listed Chicago – a city with a much bigger population – as having the most murders.

In my next column, I will further explain recent developments that hopefully will reduce homicides and other violent crimes in KCMO such as:

-The Kansas City Police Department better publicizing that pretrial witness protection, including relocation when necessary, is available for witnesses in homicide cases.

-The Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission continuing to expand to additional schools its Scholastic Crime Stoppers program that encourages students to anonymously report potential acts of violence or suicides.

-The Missouri General Assembly passing legislation to eliminate non-competitive state salary caps for all ranks in the Kansas City Police Department that have hampered both officer recruitment and retention for the under-staffed department.