KANSAS CITY, Mo. — High-profile mass shootings at the Crown Center shopping center and the Chiefs Super Bowl victory rally at Union Station heralded a violent start to the year for Kansas City in 2024, shocking the public with their brazen nature and widespread impact. Indeed, the latter shooting captured national attention, bred community outcries for change and impelled discussions among leaders about ways to make the murky path of preventing violent crime more clear.

Homicides in Kansas City, in fact, declined in 2024 from a record high the year prior, a fact which city leaders and law enforcement widely touted. But nonfatal shootings still soared, making 2024 the second most violent year for nonfatal shootings in Kansas City’s history, and violent crime overall remained at consistently high levels.

There were 147 people killed in Kansas City last year, according to data maintained by The Star, which includes fatal police shootings. Most murders were by gunfire, and the number of people who were hit by bullets — and survived — rose 12% over the previous year, according to police data.

A month after last February’s mass shooting, the Kansas City Police Department unveiled an ambitious plan to reduce crime. Police Chief Stacy Graves spoke at violence prevention and reduction events throughout the year, touting ways this plan could be a step forward.

“We are encouraged by the reduction in homicides this year,” Graves said at an end-of-year press conference on crime. “We understand there is more work to be done and we will continue the work. If one life is taken by violence in Kansas City, that is one too many.”

But even with homicides down 20% last year, officials have struggled to explain the reason for that decrease, or the reason that nonfatal shootings and violence overall continues to be on the rise. That violent trend shows no signs of abating. Already, in 2025, the city has logged 10 homicides in the first two weeks of the year.

While a KCPD crime plan hinged on prevention may have helped, it will take longer than a year to see and measure its effectiveness, said Damon Daniel, president of the Kansas City Ad Hoc Group Against Crime. There is no simple fix for high rates of violent crime, he said.

“The justice system itself isn’t working for the average Joe, and so to that degree, the system just needs to work better,” Daniel said.

What’s being done about violent crime?

Similar to previous years, police data shows most gun violence in 2024 stemmed from arguments and retaliatory violence. Domestic violence accounted for 12 homicides and at least 57 were from unknown causes, according to police data.

Officials are optimistic that steps they’re taking now are laying the groundwork to reduce gun violence in the future. But after a violent 2024, as well as a deadly start to 2025, it’s unclear whether those steps are having much immediate impact.

Last spring, Kansas City launched a new endeavor called SAVE KC, or Stand Against Violence, Everyone/ Everywhere/ Every Day, to reduce gun violence in the city. The initiative is based on the “focused deterrence model” that’s been proven to work elsewhere, said Seth Fallik, associate professor and department chair of the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Fallik, an expert in the academic models driving SAVE KC, likened the program to a “reboot” of the Kansas City No Violence Alliance, or KC NoVA, that was shuttered in 2019 after police said it ceased being effective. This time, the initiative is taking a more service-oriented approach, as well as building buy-in and support from key leaders in the city, Fallik said.

SAVE KC works by identifying those who are most likely to commit and be victims of violent crimes and calling them into a meeting featuring messages from police, religious leaders and victims’ families. The program, which includes aggressive monitoring, offers support like counseling and job opportunities to help people transition out of a life of violence.

This year was spent building a solid foundation for the program, because that’s critical to the project’s sustainability, Fallik said.

Last summer, now-former Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said that through SAVE KC, police and prosecutors have been able to collaborate in ways that were not the norm years prior. But without even greater collaboration than just between police and prosecutor, there will not be as wide of a reach in targeting high-risk offenders, Baker said.

“This is very similar to the same effort that I was able to do with (KC NoVA),” Baker said. “But we learned so very much from doing this once before.”

Baker, who spent her last year in office laying the groundwork for the program with newfound buy-in from law enforcement, said she is hopeful SAVE KC can have long-term effects.

But ascertaining how effective the program is will take time, she said.

Melesa Johnson, who took Baker’s place as Jackson County Prosecutor in January after being elected in November, has openly bought into the groundwork of SAVE KC set by Baker and other city leaders.

Johnson attended a SAVE KC “call-in” event in December. Several speakers, including the mother of a homicide victim and a former gang member who served time in prison, spoke to individuals identified as gang or group members involved in or close to violence.

At each of the call-ins, between one to two dozen people attended, many who were on probation and parole. After the presentation, social workers and service providers work with the attendees to help with issues like conflict resolution, job training and other skills.

‘Lost sense of safety’

Daniel said that in working with victim’s families, he sees the faces of those who are forgotten in the annual statistics and buzz words around crime reduction. Many who lost loved ones to violence this past year are tired, he said. Tired from a roller coaster of emotions and tired of hearing about more families losing loved ones.

“I think there’s just a lot of hurt,” Daniel said. “And people are afraid.”

Those who’ve survived violent acts, including those who’ve been shot before, had homes shot up, or who’ve lived through any number of other violent experiences, often live in fear until they get the help they need, Daniel said.

“So, that lost sense of safety, a lot of people have experienced that as well,” Daniel said.

Daniel said he is encouraged by seeing law enforcement on both sides of the Missouri-Kansas state line collaborating with organizations and being, to a certain degree, open to community suggestions on crime reduction.

At the same time, compounding trauma for survivors is a justice system that does not always serve them well, Daniel said. Time and again, he hears from victims about court cases being pushed back, extended 911 call wait times, unsolved missing persons reports and the frustration of low solve rates for homicides.

“And I get it, that, you know, there’s only so many times a detective can tell a family member, ‘There’s still no update,’ without it taking a toll on them, too,” Daniel said.

To Daniel, it all means more investment is needed in social services and organizations to make a lasting impact, he said. Police work through focused deterrence is intervention, not prevention, Daniel said.

“I think there has been some progress. I think the city of Kansas City designating $30 million to violence prevention is a plus,” Daniel said. “I’d love to see that money actually really hit the ground. That’s yet to be seen, but I think the commitment is there from the city council and the mayor.”

While more efforts among organizations have emerged over the past year, time will tell if those efforts are making a lasting impact, Daniel said.

And at the same time, over the past year, the amount of violence has tested organizations’ ability to meet needs around Kansas City. A growing number of people are in need of resources, Daniel said.

“(Our) capacity has been tested quite a bit,” Daniel said. “For us, I think, it was all about how do we find other agencies that we can partner with.”

Rosylin Temple, founder and director of KC Mothers in Charge, another community organization that works to help victim’s families, agreed that 2024 was still a year marked by crippling violence.

“We could have way surpassed where we were (in 2023) for homicides (185) since shootings still went up,” Temple said. “So the violence is really still high in Kansas City.”

Temple said there isn’t a clear reason for the fewer number of homicides in 2024. It could have been due to several different factors, she said, including shooters missing their intended targets or good doctors who saved lives.

“We have a community problem and until we address our community problem, nothing is going to change,” Temple said.

Daniel, who has been with Ad Hoc for nearly 10 years, has seen crime and violence in Kansas City evolve over time. One observation he has made in his time with the organization is how crime perpetrators have trended younger.

Increasingly, the number of people under 24-years-old being killed in Kansas City is growing, too, he said.

Daniel said younger generations being more involved in violent crime also speaks to the impacts of generational trauma. About 85% of the people Ad Hoc serves had been exposed to violence before.

“For us, what’s really fueling our evolution is to really focus on how we disrupt generational trauma,” Daniel said. “All too often, we have a mother who has lost their mother or father to violence, and now has lost a child to violence.”

“So that cycle has impacted generations and their families,” Daniel said. “So for us, the question is, how do we disrupt that? That’s the question we will be pursuing the answer to in years to come.”

KC officials hopeful

Kansas City ended 2024 with the lowest number of homicides in a year since 2019, when the city recorded 151 killings.

At a press conference on Dec. 31, 2024, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said he is asked regularly about his campaign promise to get the city under 100 homicides per year.

He said he welcomes the question.

“We strive to get ourselves down to zero,” Lucas said. “I understand that we may not get to zero in 2025, but I put real pressure on the police chief – sometimes you’ve heard it – that we want to make sure that we are driving those numbers down.”

It’s important to remember there is no “one size fits all” when it comes to crime reduction, said Officer Alayna Gonzalez, a spokesperson with the Kansas City Police Department.

“Just like anything, crime trends move in waves and that requires city officials, police departments, federal partners, and community members to all be fluid and innovative in ways to put an end to plaguing violence,” Gonzalez said.

Reducing violent crime requires a multilayered approach, said Sgt. Phil DiMartino, a spokesman with the Kansas City Police Department. The department routinely collaborates with city, community, state and federal partners to address crime.

A recent example of collaboration was a warrant sweep in mid-November led by the department that involved state and federal partners, DiMartino said. The sweep led to the arrest of more than 30 men with alleged gang connections. The arrests were expected to “significantly” disrupt the group’s criminal activities.

Kansas City police have also continued working with KC Common Good and KC 360, an effort modeled after Omaha 360 violence prevention strategy that saw a 74% drop in shootings in 15 years. The KC 360 program started in 2022.

Vince Ortega, the executive director of Jackson County COMBAT, expressed optimism that Kansas City would see fewer shootings in 2025. He’s noticed a level of collaboration involving law enforcement, social services, and treatment programs that he said he’s never seen before in the years he worked at the Kansas City Police Department and then COMBAT.

The programs identify names of both victims, and those likely to commit crimes, and provide them with services.

“We’re actually confronting these individuals both with social services and enforcement side and giving them options and giving them opportunities to change their lives,” Ortega said.

Combat, through its STRiVIN’ initiative, has identified “hot spots” for crime and established five hubs, three of which are in Kansas City, to coordinate efforts among all COMBAT-funded agencies, police departments and the courts in those neighborhoods. Two more hubs will be added next year, one in Blue Springs and the other in the Waldo and Brookside area of Kansas City.

“I see a lot of optimism because everybody, I hate to use this term, but everybody is on the same page — everybody is seeing the bigger picture,” Ortega said.

But even in the midst of optimism, violence in the city has shown its teeth to start the new year. Kansas City has already recorded 10 homicides in the first two weeks of the year, according to Star data, setting the city along an all-too-familiar path.

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The Star’s Nathan Pilling contributed to this report.

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