2010-02

“I wouldn’t be without it.”   A real estate broker -friend was speaking about the Global Positioning System (GPS) in her Lincoln Town Car.

My friend is one of millions who have embraced this technological aid to navigating anything from in-town destinations to cross-country treks.

Unfortunately, criminals also see the value of these devices.  Which is why they are among the most-likely items to be stolen from vehicles.

In the aftermath of media coverage of  robbery-homicide victim Kevin Beaver plus a spate of residential burglaries during December 2009, Master Patrol Officer James Schriever  from Central Patrol Division (CPD) had an attentive audience at the January 14 VNA meeting.   The meeting took place in the administrative/conference annex of Immanuel Lutheran Church, Bell Street at Westport Road.

Emotions were strong in Prospero’s Books at 39th and Bell Streets on Sunday evening, January 31st.  A Volker Watch meeting organized by resident Kara Werner drew an audience of more than 40 neighbors who had come to talk about ways to deal with the recent upsurge of violent crime in the neighborhood.  They came, too, from outside Volker, from close-in areas like Roanoke and West Plaza, where Kevin Beaver, fatally wounded in the December 18th, 2009  strong-arm robbery at Westport Road and Wyoming Street, lived.

The following article is an excerpt of information provided by Master Patrol Officer James Schriever of the Central Patrol Division in response to questions and concerns voiced by neighbors at the January 2010 VNA meeting. It traces the development of local gangs from prototypes imported from Southern California and later Chicago in the late 1980s and touches on the relationship of graffiti to the presence and activities of gangs in the Kansas City area investigated by the Kansas City Police Department's Gang Squad.