Kansas City reports lowest number of homicides in years

By Sara Wiercinski

At a December 31 press conference, Mayor Quinton Lucas announced that Kansas City will end the year with the fewest homicide deaths since 2018. As of publication of this article, Kansas City Police Department reporting showed 144 deaths due to homicide, compared to 182 total deaths in 2023 and 170 in 2022.

“While it is a trend line that we want to see, we also want to see a continued drop [in homicides],” said Lucas. “A key part is collaboration between the people who are next to me today. The police chief has worked hard, with our county prosecutor, with violence prevention advocates, with educators, with city hall, to make sure we continue to see a reduction in violent crime.”

KCPD Chief Stacey Graves was also in attendance, along with Jackson County Prosecutor-elect Melesa Johnson and Missouri State Representative Mark Sharp, who is responsible for the passage of Blair’s Law outlawing celebratory gunfire.

Graves added: “We are encouraged by the reduction in homicides this year. We understand there is more work to be done, and we will continue to work. One life lost in Kansas City is one too many.”

The Stats

Of the 144 homicide deaths, there were 92 (64%) Black male victims and 93 (60%) Black male suspects. The second highest demographic were white males–27 (19%) were victims and 13 (8%) were suspects. The Black female victim count was 15 (10%) while 10 (6%) were suspects. Hispanic males were 4% in both categories (around 6 victims and 7 suspects). White and Hispanic females were less than 2%.

The biggest age group for victims was 25-34 years (38%). For suspects it was ages 18-24 years (22%), beat out by the Unknown category at 25%.

According to the Daily Homicide Analysis report, 139 of the 144 total deaths (96%) involved a firearm.

South Patrol Stats

The South Patrol division reported 13 homicide deaths for the year, compared to 11 deaths in 2023 and 16 in 2022. During the pandemic (2020 and 2021), the numbers had hit an all-time high of 22 deaths both years.

The Strategy

Mayor Lucas credited multiple efforts for the reduction, including collaboration between community improvement districts, the REACH program at city hall with pre-arrest alternatives, and the city’s public safety task that addresses concerns related to community well-being, prioritizing high-crime areas.

Lucas also praised pay raises for Kansas City Police: “In 2024 we were proud–and I thank the chief in this–to have a good collaborative police budget conversation in Kansas City that ensured pay raises for our officers, to make sure we take care of our staff.”

Both Graves and Johnson spoke of the success of Safe KC, a data-informed strategy that focuses on the small number of people in the community committing the most violence.

Blair’s Law

Blair’s Law makes it a state criminal offense to “recklessly discharge a firearm within or into the limits of any municipality” with several specified exceptions. The law is meant to eliminate injury and death caused when bullets shot in the air return to the ground.

“What comes up must come down. And they do, and it causes injury and even death,” said Graves.

This will be the first New Year’s  since the law went into effect on August 28, 2024. Representative Sharp, who had introduced the law into the legislator for five years before getting it passed, was grateful.

“I think we’re moving in the right direction. We can make our community safer. Blair’s Law is one of those tools.”

Mayor Lucas put it bluntly: “Make sure that we can have a New Year’s Eve where we don’t have a tragic story or someone injured, where we don’t have a report of an officer who was nearly hit as we have in years past. And more than anything, make sure you have respect for all of your neighbors and everyone in this community.”

Looking to 2025

When asked what to expect in the coming year to continue the downward trend, Melesa Johnson explained “We must use every single tool at our disposal to effect change, and a pivotal tool is prosecution, incarceration, accountability, punitive punishment and making it abundantly clear that there is a code of conduct in Kansas City and Jackson County that must be adhered to.”

Mayor Lucas echoed her commitment: “Something our prosecutor elect has mentioned, and something this police chief has mentioned: We’ll love you, we’ll take care of you, we’ll give you every alternative to have a path of peace and safety in your community, but if you’re somebody involved in bad actions, in gunplay, we will hold you accountable, we will arrest you, you’ll be prosecuted, you’ll be jailed. We don’t play.”