South KC Perspective
By John Sharp
Noting “Crime is out of control,” South Patrol Commander David Jackson told an anti-crime community meeting January 24 that the new patrol staffing schedule with 11-hour shifts approved by Police Chief Stacey Graves and begun January 21 will help put more officers on the streets in south Kansas City during afternoons and early evenings when there are more crimes and shorten police response times.
Jackson said the new staffing schedule calls for a minimum of seven officers being available for each shift. The old schedule only called for a minimum of six officers, and there were routinely only four officers available during overnight shifts due to staff shortages, Jackson said.
He explained that South Patrol covers 62 square miles and now has around 76 officers regularly assigned to it. He said it would take a little over 100 officers to be fully staffed.
Sergeant Chris Hayes who is in charge of property crimes for South Patrol said he has three detectives to work on property crimes, and he needs eight.
“I had no idea how bad property crimes were until I started this job,” he said.
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