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May 30, 2012
Prowlers will no longer benefit from a loophole in a Kansas City ordinance.
For decades, Chapter 50 of the Code of Ordinances only prohibited prowling “in the nighttime.”
“This falls under the category of, ‘Really?!” City Council member Scott Wagner said during the city’s May 23 Public Safety and Emergency Services Committee meeting. “This ordinance shows us how important words and phrases are in our ordinances.”
Due to the phrasing, the Kansas City Police Department has been unable to effectively prosecute burglaries that occur during the daytime hours.
One of the catalysts to changing the ordinance to include all hours of the day was a 2010 case involving a daytime burglary in south Kansas City. A neighbor observed prowlers and called police. When KCPD arrived, they found three suspects and a truck filled with stolen property. Despite the evidence, the case was thrown out of court since the city’s ordinance only accounted for prowling during the nighttime.
The ordinance’s poor phrasing has also hindered cases in 2012.
Since January of this year, 311 burglaries have been reported in South Patrol, Sgt. Rod Gentry said. Since up to 75 percent of the burglaries occurred during the daytime, only 25 percent of the cases could be prosecuted, he said.
To fix the loophole, the city council voted unanimously May 24 to change the ordinance to include all hours of the day.
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