KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Mayor Quinton Lucas says current methods of fighting violent crime in Kansas City aren’t working.
On Sunday, Lucas tried a new method to connect with the public, posting his personal cell phone number to Twitter and Facebook.
One day later, Lucas said that social media post was both out of frustration and desperation after Saturday morning’s deadly shooting in Westport.
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“The mayor, the prosecutor, the police chief — we’re all working as hard as we can to come up with solutions, but we realize we don’t know everything,” Lucas told FOX4.
Since Lucas posted his contact information, he said he’s received hundreds of text messages with ideas, some of which are better than others.
One central theme involves police officers and getting more of them on the streets.
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“Do you have patrol officers? Do you have more social workers in the community? Do you have social workers, frankly, who reflect the community they’re serving?” Lucas shared.
Police seem to agree with those suggestions.
As it stands, KC’s police department employs roughly 1,300 officers. As of Monday evening, Kansas City has seen 26 murders in 2020, after the previous year nearly reached an all-time record for homicides.
“He truly believes we can do better. He, like everybody else, is looking for a way to fix this,” KCPD Sgt. Brad Lemmon said, showing his support for the mayor’s post.
Lemmon, who also serves as president of Kansas City’s Fraternal Order of Police, said although the city has a large number of police officers per capita, KC’s broad geographical layout presents policing challenges many towns don’t see.
“You still have to stop people who have hate in their hearts. You can do a lot of stuff through community involvement,” Lemmon said. “You can do a lot of stuff through relationships and exterior means. At the end of the day, there’s only one group of people out there that are trying to find bad people out there while they’re doing bad things.”
During a recent police board meeting, KCPD Chief Rick Smith requested an additional 30 officers to be added to the workforce that already exists.
Lucas said sharing his phone number is a small effort to help police in any way he can.
