Paul Thompson
Northeast News

So what’s the Kansas City Police Department’s angle, anyways?

That was the question posed by a homeless man named Thomas on a scorching July 11 morning, after being handed an ice-cold bottle of water by East Patrol social worker Trena Miller and Community Interaction Officers Patrick Byrd and Greg Smith.

Thomas wasn’t confrontational, but curious. With a guitar slung across his bare shoulders and a hunched disposition, Thomas acknowledged that he had been homeless for five years. He was in need of eyeglasses, he said, because his glaucoma just kept getting worse. He readily played a tune for the KCPD personnel, but when he was finished, his curiosity kicked in.

“What’s your angle?” Thomas asked.

It’s a legitimate question, especially for a segment of the population that may be more accustomed to getting kicked off street corners than having police officers hand them bottled water. Miller played off the question, suggesting that she was there to help. Pressed later, Miller elaborated on the line of inquiry.

“I think my angle is just to get out here with the CIO’s and build some rapport with some people who might have had some negative situations with police officers,” Miller said. “Hopefully with Thomas, I can get him linked with some housing resources, and possibly glasses.”

If East Patrol’s July 11 community outreach event is any indication, Miller will stay true to her word.

Thomas wouldn’t be the first to benefit from Miller’s veracity. She arrived at East Patrol in the spring of 2018 to serve as the patrol division’s dedicated social worker. That work takes vigilance, and fortunately for KCPD’s East Patrol division, it’s a trait that Miller carries in high supply.

The outreach effort began at around 9:30 a.m., as the triumvirate packed up a patrol vehicle with four 24-pack cases of bottled water that had been donated by the new Sun Fresh grocery store at Prospect and Linwood. Sun Fresh was actually the first stop on the outreach trip, as Miller wanted to thank store owner John Lipari for his assistance. The two greeted each other with the easy air of old friends, so it was surprising to learn that they had only just met the day prior.

“She just came in yesterday, introduced herself, and that’s how we met,” said Lipari on July 11. “I always try to help anybody in the neighborhood, especially the police department. I’ll do anything I can to help out.”

These kinds of interactions are relatively common for Miller. Between stops during the outreach event, Officer Smith relayed an anecdote about Miller’s progress working with Janice James, who lives on the 400 block of Bellefontaine. According to Smith, Miller brought dog food to the house, connected James with an organization willing to do an architectural assessment of her dilapidated roof, and even promised to replace her broken air conditioning unit. When James refused to be taken to a cooling center to beat the heat, Miller invited her into to her vehicle to enjoy the air conditioning.

Throughout the July 11 outreach event, Miller, Smith and Byrd graciously encountered some of the city’s most needy residents.

A young homeless man named Sean was standing shirtless on a Wilson Road median, holding a scratched out sign that read as follows: Please Help/Hungry and Need/Clean Clothes Please. Sean described a litany of his psychological maladies, but indicated that he was voluntarily off his meds.

“I don’t like being a puppet of the government,” he said.

Another woman was found near Independence Avenue, sitting on the blistering sidewalk in plain view of the overwhelmingly sun. She was carrying a walking stick, and said that she was 100% blind. She had $5 on her person, she said, and needed $15 more to pay for a bedroom to sleep in for the week.

“I can’t sleep out here no more,” she added.

A common theme among the individuals encountered was a genuine gratefulness for the cold water, along with an unwillingness to take Miller up on her offer to to connect them with a shelter. Some said they didn’t feel safe in shelters, some shared concerns about bed bugs. At times, the interactions took a toll on the East Patrol representatives.

“I don’t know the answers, man,” Byrd said at one point. “A lot of people don’t want solutions.”

At the Northeast Athletic Fields, the group did run into two individuals who said they would take advantage of services. One of them, Andrea (pronounced  Andre), said that he needed prescriptions for his mental health: he had been diagnosed with severe depression, an anxiety disorder, and bipolar disorder.

Near the Front St. exit of I-435, west coast transient Todd told the East Patrol contingent that he had been run over by a truck near 5th and Broadway a couple of months back. Todd said that one recurring problem he has is that he can’t go to hospitals, because he lost his wallet, ID and birth certificate and has no other method of proving who he is. Miller said she would look into his problem and track him down with a response.

When he was handed a bottle of water, Todd was grateful.

“God bless,” he said.

Smith asked Todd to make sure he threw the bottle away, and sure enough, before the squad car could even turn around towards its next destination, he was piling nearby trash into an empty milk crate.

The day ended at a home on N. Denver, where Miller had promised 87-year-old Zelda Owens that she would help her install a carbon monoxide detector. Miller brought the detector along for the outreach event; she had convinced the Westlake Hardware store on Independence Avenue to donate the device. The device was installed before the group left Owens’ home.

The day following the outreach event, Miller followed up about the home on Bellefontaine. There were no longer any media or cameras around to document it, but she had kept her word to James anyways: a new air conditioner had just been installed in her home.

When reached for comment, James expressed gratitude that the unit had been installed.

“I went 40 days in the heat, and I just got it in a couple of days ago,” James said. “She has been a blessing.”

“I gave her an angel that was my mom’s,” she added, referring to an eight-inch ornamental figurine. “I gave that to Trena because she is an absolute angel.”