Prosecutors Urge Mo. Police to Keep Pursuing Drug Cases

Prosecutors in Clay and Platte counties on Tuesday urged Kansas City police to continue pursuing drug cases because, they argued, a vast majority of those crimes often lead to violence.

Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd and Clay County Prosecutor Daniel White spoke during the monthly meeting of the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners. Last month, the two wrote a joint letter asking police not make any policy change that would restrict drug cases from being referred to their offices.

"Are drugs associated to violence?" Zahnd said. "The better question to ask is, are violent crimes associated with drugs?"

"The answer to that question is unequivocally yes," he said.

Both Zahnd and White stressed intervention and prevention would help reduce crime and build safer communities.

During last month's police board meeting, however, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said years of saturating neighborhoods with police to pursue low-level drug crimes isn't working.

Baker said police should focus their efforts on the city's "epidemic of violence."

To that end, Baker said her office has created more narrow guidelines and will consider charging drug crimes when a defendant poses a risk to public safety or is disrupting another calm community.

The police board took action on Baker's recommendation and allowed Zahnd and White an opportunity to discuss their letter.

Both Northland prosecutors said early intervention would allow their offices to assist nonviolent offenders to get help through county drug treatment courts, diversion programs and other efforts.

"This is not about putting first-time, nonviolent drug offenders in prison," Zahnd said. "That's not what it's about. It's about intervening in the lives, so we can stop the cycle of violence in our city."

Zahnd said nearly 90% of the non-vehicular homicides reported over the last five years in Platte County were associated with drugs. Roughly, 75% of non-domestic assault, robbery and weapon charges from KCPD by the end of May were associated with drugs.

That means those crimes were committed by somebody who was on drugs at the time, during a drug deal or by someone who had a prior history of drug offenses, Zahnd said.

White said in Clay County his office filed 734 drug possession cases in 2019. More than 81% of those cases were resolved when the defendant pleaded guilty.

Zahnd said drug cases, regardless, if they are low-level crimes need to be referred to prosecutors on a consistent basis.

"Police and prosecutors are supposed to enforce those laws on an individual basis, they want to use their discretion in individual cases," he said.

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