KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – Kansas City has been looking for solutions to the property crimes that have been plaguing every section of town, and the City Council will vote on a security ordinance this Thursday.
Seven Swans Crêperie located in Downtown had a recent break-in on January 12. Thieves stole $350 from their cash register, and the safe, after breaking two of their front windows.
Becka Holman said they have applied for the city’s new back to business funds.
“There’s just like your stomach drops,” Holman said. “The idea of it was like, we finally had it happen to us. There was a bit of surprise, but there’s also that, yeah – it’s our turn.”
Holman said Seven Swans has been watching the city work on solutions to property crimes, and is looking forward to seeing things implemented.
Mayor Quinton Lucas is the sponsor of the new $1 million ordinance that businesses, community improvement districts, homeowner associations – basically any entity in the city that can apply for in off duty officer security.
“This ordinance wasn’t desiring to solve every issue.There are going to be real police deployment issues, there are real recruitment issues, and those are things that we’re going to need to make sure that we address,” Lucas said.
Matt Abbott owns more than 40 properties in the Crossroads. He’d like to see additional technology used throughout the city like facial recognition software and licence plate readers to track these bad actors as they move through the city.
He spoke to the finance and public safety committee and expressed his concerns that $1 million will likely not make that big of an impact citywide.
“I think we need 10 times, 30 times (that amount). That’s just a drop in the bucket and I think it needs to be spent very wisely and focused,” Abbott said. “If you spread out $1,000,000 over the city, that’s not going to accomplish anything. You really need to focus on a concentrated area and see success, and learn from that money, and then learn how to grow from there.”
KCTV5 took those concerns to Mayor Lucas.
“This is City Hall saying let’s do everything we can. We put $1,000,000 into this. We put money into business interruption funds – business relief for those who are broken into,” Lucas said. “We’ve invested in violence prevention to the tune of $6 million a year at City Hall. We are putting a lot of money and that’s in addition to and supplemental to more than quarter billion dollars a year, the Kansas City Taxpayers Fund on law enforcement in Kansas City, and we will continue to fund law enforcement.”
Lucas referencing KCPD’s budget of $340 million.
Holman with Seven Swans recommends businesses get to know their neighbors. In their break-in, their neighbors were able to contribute security footage to the police investigation.
“The more we collaborate and protect each other, I really think that’s going to be what helps us pull through this and hopefully see the end to these random breakins, that are causing so much stress and just eroding the safety of small businesses downtown and through the city,” Holman said.
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