KCPD Chief Graves addresses recent violence in city

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two days after FOX4 aired a story questioning the lack of comments from Kansas City, Missouri Police Department Chief Stacey Graves on the amount of violence against children in the city, we were able to talk to her at a SAVE KC meeting at the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Center.

“The people that are working in this space know that I’m present, know that I’m committed and know that I am available to not only speak on the topic,” Graves said in an interview with FOX4 Friday. “But I’m also working internally to make sure that we have the action behind the words.”

Graves took issue with the story FOX4 aired Wednesday but did speak to us for 10 minutes after the meeting.

She said she was available for an interview April 19 at a Kansas City United for Safety Symposium, but we did not talk to her that day. Regardless, she says there will be people who try to cause distractions. She didn’t name anyone specifically.

“What’s happening here today, what’s happening with KC United, what’s happening at KC 360, Kansas City is collaborating in a way that in my 27 years of being at KCPD has not happened,” she said.

SAVE KC is a collaboration between KCPD, city, and Jackson County, Mo. leaders to try to reduce violence through a strategy called Focused Deterrence. SAVE KC talks to groups who are involved in violence.

“It is just their present conduct, and can we interrupt that decision making that they’re making?” Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney Jean Peters Baker said in an interview with FOX4 Friday. “Perhaps it’s a retaliatory act. Perhaps it’s just violence is normalized in places where we are trying to send the message, ‘This is not normal, and we don’t want this for you, nor do we want it for anybody around you.'”

Peters Baker’s also a board member of SAVE KC, like Chief Graves is. Chief Graves has been busy over the past two months. KCPD Captain Jake Becchina told us Friday she was gone from March 19th of this year through April 8th. She was also gone from April 24 through April 29.

Graves told FOX4 Friday she recently dealt with the death of a family member.

FOX4 also asked Graves if there were any updates in the search for the suspects in the killings of 11 year-old Kourtney Freeman and 13 year-old Trevion Stewart from April.

“We are making headway in those investigations,” Graves said. “That’s something that I cannot speak to today because I don’t want to divulge any information that could potentially jeopardize what we have going on right now. I’m confident in our officers and our detectives just like I was with other investigations that I’ve spoken about publicly.”

At Friday’s meeting, KCPD reported that year to date homicides are down this year compared to 2023. There have been 45 this year compared to 59 on this same day in 2023. However, the number of non fatal shootings is actually up by 55. There were 145 at this same time in 2023. There have been 200 so far in 2024.

“You could put in some of those numbers from the three mass shootings that we… by definition, have had here in Kansas City,” Graves said. “But I think it’s also showing a trend that we are experiencing more non-fatal shootings. Either way, those are what the numbers are, and that is what we’re trying to combat here.”

The incidents Graves was referring to were the shootings at Crown Center in January, the Super Bowl victory parade in February, and a shooting later that month near the fire station at Independence Avenue and Lawn .

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