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Just Another DART Day
After being told to vacate his house, a Kansas City man winds up thanking the Jackson County Drug Abatement Response Team (DART). He realized his home was a deathtrap waiting to be sprung. Inspectors found numerous fire hazardous and other threats in the home, prompting the fire marshal to declare, “There’s no way we can let anybody stay in here.” DART addresses problem houses like this, which have been involved in drug or violent activity, to help improve the quality of life in entire neighborhoods throughout the county.
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Making A Difference You Can See
The chill and gloom of a bitter—winterish—fall day failed to keep more than 50 volunteers away as COMBAT held a neighborhood clean-up effort in the blocks surrounding Central High School in Kansas City. Before and after photos—and during—photos show the difference the effort made. The helping hands and heavy equipment did more than help brighten up the neighborhood. Studies have shown cleaning up the trash in a neighborhood can go a long way toward cleaning up crime.
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Equivalent Of More Than 250,000 'Doses' (144lbs.) Of Meth Seized
The COMBAT-Funded Jackson County Drug Task Force seized 144 pounds of methamphetamine during a recent search of a Kansas City property. The drugs, valued at more than $12 million, were hidden in metal containers that were sealed inside four tires. Task Force Officer-In-Charge Dan Cummings believes the meth—the largest amount the Task Force has ever recovered at one time—was probably within a day of being distributed for sale throughout the metropolitan area. "I don't think anyone was going to sit on that much meth for very long," he said.
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I'd Be Back In Prison Or Dead
I'm convinced that I would be back in prison or dead, if I had not gotten drug treatment through a COMBAT-funded program in 2015. Now today I am working to help others start their recovery journeys. The "mess" I had made out of my life can now be a "message" for someone else going through addiction. I want to give them hope, let them know if a guy like me can get clean and stay clean, they can too.
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Half Toward Enforcement
COMBAT is supported through a quarter-center sales tax that Jackson County voters first approved in 1989 and have since renewed multiple times—the last time being in 2016 when they voted (with record 77% support) extending the COMBAT text another nine years.
The tax generates more than $20 million a year to support prevention, treatment and anti-violence programs. The County Legislature approved a forumlar to distribute the funding, with half the revenue going toward law enforcement efforts.
A quarter-cent sales tax equates to an extra 25 cents per $100 spend. An estimated 30% of COMBAT revenue is generated by non-Jackson County resident paying the tax when shopping in the county.
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Initiative Focuses On Need For Joint Effort To Reduce Violence In Neighborhoods
This COMBAT initiative brings together school administrators, police officers, elected officials, mental health professionals, social workers, faith-based leaders and concerned citizens to address violence in Jackson County’s most vulnerable neighborhoods.
With a focus on developing a collaborative, comprehensive and coordinated plan in each “hot spot,” STRIVIN’ recognizes that no one individual or single agency can “save a neighborhood.” It takes working together—striving together—to make any neighborhood a safe place to call home.
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