By LESLIE COLLINS
Northeast News
August 21, 2013

A two-day warrant sweep in Kansas City resulted in 81 arrests and 203 warrants cleared.

Kansas City Police Department (KCPD), along with other law enforcement partners, like the FBI, United States Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, among others, conducted the sweeps Aug. 14-15.

For the first time, the Kansas City No Violence Alliance (KC NoVA) assisted in KCPD’s annual violent crime initiative and identified a social crime network of 2,161 individuals. Those individuals are connected to the past two year’s homicides and aggravated assaults in Kansas City.

A portion of those individuals were targeted during the sweeps, along with those wanted by KCPD’s Narcotics and Vice Division and those connected to violent crimes in the designated “hot spot” areas.

Warrant sweeps aren’t new, but targeting social crime networks is a new concept for Kansas City, said Capt. Joe McHale, KC NoVA project manager.

The 2,161 individuals identified by KC NoVA are nearly 100 times more likely to be murdered compared to the national rate. While the average aggravated assault rate is 241 assaults per 100,000 people, it’s 3,055 assaults per 100,000 people in the KC NoVA identified crime network. Over the past year and a half, 21 individuals in the network have died, McHale said.

In addition to law enforcement agencies making arrests, client advocates were also on hand to reach out to at-risk individuals on the periphery of the social crime networks. Those individuals may not have a criminal history and don’t have felony charges, McHale said. The goal is to connect those individuals to needed resources and steer them away from the path of crime. To further influence at-risk individuals, KC NoVA invites those individuals to “call-ins.” During call-in sessions, at-risk individuals listen to presentations from KCPD officials, including Chief Darryl Forte, along with the U.S. Attorney, Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, Missouri Probation and Parole, the mothers of homicide victims and other community leaders.

Warrant sweep. KCPD and other law enforcement partners conduct a warrant sweep at a house in Historic Northeast Aug. 15. During the two-day sweep, officers recovered $48,000 worth of illegal narcotics and seized 10 firearms. Twenty-five new charges were also levied.Leslie Collins