KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – Jackson County leaders and experts came together Monday to hold a town hall geared toward youth crime in Kansas City. A panel discussed what is driving it, what they are doing to address it, and potential steps towards solutions to the problem.

“Seeing safe and peaceful communities starts with us,” said Adam McClun, the Director of Programs and Operations at KC Common Good. “It starts with our families and our kids and also asking ourselves the question are we reaching? Are we serving those most impacted by violence and those who are closest to violence?”

Representatives from KC Common Good, the Kansas City Missouri Police Department, Circuit Court of Jackson County, and Kansas City Public Schools all took turns sharing information. Major Leslie Foreman, with KCPD’s Central Patrol Division, brought up juvenile crime statistics. She said while there are several reasons it’s harder to get the numbers for certain juvenile crimes, they are able to keep stats for violent crimes like homicide.

“When we look at homicide suspects that are juveniles — these are identified suspects — doesn’t mean they have been charged necessarily, just that we believe we know who they are,” said Foreman. “In 2019, we had 17. In 2020, we had 6. 2021, we had 7. 2022, we had 14. 2023, we had 16. So far this year we have had 13. Homicide victims that are juveniles: In 2019 it was 11 of them. 2020 it was 10. 2021 it was 15. 2022, 12. 2023, 19. This year to date 14.”

Monica Penrose, the acting juvenile officer for the Circuit Court of Jackson County, discussed what they are doing to address offenders in the juvenile system.

“We receive hundreds of referrals each year,” said Penrose. “Many of them are actually minor types of offenses where we are able to put them in a diversion program and put their parents through services as well. We have parents bring their children to our offices asking for help. In our diversion program, over 92% of the youth referred to that program and go through the services do not re-offend.”

Another program that is working for kids in Kansas City Public Schools is a mentorship program, according to Dr. Derald Davis, the Deputy Superintendent and Chief Equity Officer.

“Our data shows that students with mentors have higher attendance, fewer disciplinary infractions, they are graduating on time at a higher rate versus those without mentors,” said Davis. “So essentially, students with support are thriving in school.”

He added they can always use more volunteers to sign up as mentors.

“Currently there are more than 350 students on the waiting list,” said Davis. “That means the student has asked for a mentor and parents have signed a permission slip. But to be fair, once there are 10 students on a waiting list at a particular school, we don’t accept any more permission slips. So the need is actually greater.”

Other ideas brought up to address youth crime include expanding community partnerships, putting more funding in crime prevention and programs, and going directly to the source and helping kids who are already in trouble get the support they need to prevent them from doing it again.

“”We just released the Kansas City public safety plan,” said Gary Jones Jr., the KC 360 Manager with KC Common Good. “Phase one of that is intervention.”

KC United for Public Safety just announced a plan earlier this month to make Kansas City safer. It’s called KC 360 and the five pillars of the plan are prevention, intervention, enforcement support, and support services.

The goal of the plan is to reduce gun violence by 50 percent in five years, and have fewer than 100 homicides annually.

All on the panel agreed there are several things that can be worked on, but it won’t be an overnight fix.

“Understand there is a root cause to that we have to address as well,” said Jones Jr. “It’s one thing to brand the crisis and the issue, but I think Kansas City has to take time to brand the solutions as well. And that’s what we has not been doing thus far.”

KC Common Good has more information on how to get involved on its website.

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