By Paul Thompson
Northeast News
May 10, 2017
KANSAS CITY, Missouri – The situation is more common than some might think. It’s late at night, and the jarring cacophony of gunfire rattles up and down your street: what do you do?
If you ask those within the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department, the answer is simple: call in a police report immediately. Still, leaders within the department realize that they’re asking Kansas City residents to invest in patience at a time when real threats exist on a consistent basis.
“When patrol gets there, sometimes the follow-up isn’t for months. It could be a year,” admitted Central Patrol Division Major Rick Smith. “It doesn’t mean the investment is not worth it. It may take a while for it to pay off, but that’s the opportunity that you’re looking for.”
East Patrol Major Jim Thomas agreed that in most cases, a shots fired report isn’t going to pay immediate dividends. More often than not, the person who fires gun shots in a KCMO neighborhood isn’t going to wait around long enough to encounter KCPD officers at the scene. But Thomas went on to explain exactly what officers do with the shots fired data after a police report is filed.
“What they do is they look for evidence like shell casings that may have been extracted from the weapon that was fired. From there, those shell casings are recovered and they’re sent to the lab,” said Thomas. “They go through a NIBN (National Integrated Ballistic Network) process, which is an analytical process of the shell itself. We’re able to take a look at those to see if a similar weapon was used in another crime.”
KCPD’s own violent crime statistics tell a dangerous story. From January 1, 2017 through mid-April, the seven Police Department sectors that largely comprise Northeast Kansas City combined to compile 295 ‘shots fired’ reports, as well as 79 assaults, 60 armed robberies, and five homicides or dead bodies. Since the start of 2016, there have been over a dozen homicides in the Northeast area.
“There has been an uptick in not only the shots fired calls that we receive, but also aggravated assaults with a firearm. We’ve definitely seen an uptick in that type of crime,” said Thomas. “That’s just a thing that we’re facing at this time.”
Police leaders say that concerned residents are as important as anything in the battle to curb violent crime. Thomas noted, as did Smith, that the shots fired data they compile through police reports is vital in the crime-solving process, even if the reports don’t pay immediate, palpable dividends.
Shotspotter technology, which uses advanced audio censors to precisely track gunfire to its exact origin point, is one tool that the police department has access to. The subscription-based service guarantees the location of 80% of outdoor gunshots within a distance of 25 meters, and can be even more precise. According to police data, only about 20%-30% of all outdoor gunfire is reported to 911 by concerned residents. In areas where Shotspotter is set up, though, that figure creeps up  closer to 100%.
The technology is only up and running at select points throughout the city, however, thanks to Federal Transportation Authority grant funds which were initially made available in 2012. Shotspotter was deployed in and around the Troost MAX line in an effort to track crime along a key transportation line in the city. Since the original subscription, KCPD has seen more than 6,500 gunfire alerts in their coverage area, leading to dozens of arrests. What’s more, the technology allows officers to arrive at crime scenes faster than ever before. In one anecdote relayed by the department, officers were alerted through Shotspotter of gunfire, and were able to respond in one and a half minutes. Because they were so timely, they found the suspect of the shooting still on the scene and in possession of the discharged firearm. The incident led to a felony arrest and a Felon in Possession of a Firearm charge.
Sgt. Jake Becchina told the Northeast News that there are now roughly 250 KCPD officers who are trained to run the Shotspotter application in their patrol cars.
“Having a gunshot detection is just one part of a comprehensive strategy to lower crime,” Becchina said. “It provides a lot of really good anecdotal examples.”
Although the Shotspotter technology is available through grant funding, that process can still be arduous. Until the whole city is covered under the program, law enforcement officers say that the best way to continue combating gunfire is to report shots fired as soon as possible following an incident. Becchina explained one key, common sense reason that filing a police report is important to neighborhoods.
“Patrol allocation and staffing is determined by calls for service,” said Becchina. “If we never get calls in a neighborhood, then we assume everything is fine.”