Alarming Domestic Violence Data

Twelve homicides linked to domestic violence were committed in Kansas City within the first 100 days of 2025, quickly—tragically—matching the total for all of 2024. That number has since climbed to 19 lives lost, making 2025 the city’s second deadliest year for domestic violence since 2014.

The number of domestic violence-related homicides remains at 19 since we posted this chart on jacksoncountycombat.com October 22, though the number of all homicides has since risen to 129, according to the Kansas City Police Department's most recent Daily Homicide Analysis.

Another grim stat to consider: Domestic violence accounted for nearly half the assaults KCPD officers reported January 1 through October 20: 3,482 of 7,465 assaults (46.6%). That percentage dips just below 40% for aggravated assaults: 1,040 of 2,628 (39.6%). Crime analysts for COMBAT and the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office pulled these numbers from the more than 30,000 incident reports KCPD filed from the start of the year until October 20, the last date for which complete data was made available.

“We can’t effectively address what we refuse to acknowledge,” COMBAT Director Murray Woodard said. “Domestic violence isn’t a private matter—it’s a public crisis. The more we raise awareness and connect people to help, the more lives we can save.”

Melesa Johnson has made holding domestic abusers accountable a top priority since becoming Jackson County Prosecutor in January. Through mid-October, the percentage of domestic violence cases filed by the Prosecutor’s Office had increased nearly 30% this year compared to 2024.

» Full Article: Second Deadliest Year—So Far—For Domestic Violence Since 2014

More Than $700,000 In Funding For Domestic Violence

COMBAT currently provides $767,900 in funding for a dozen different programs that have a primary or secondary focus on domestic violence. A $35,053 grant for Newhouse is expected to help serve 11,000 people in Jackson County this year alone, through supporting the emergency shelter's attempts to expand its 24/7 hotline services—what can be a critical lifeline for those seeking urgent help. A year ago, Newhouse’s hotline staff fielded about 26 calls per day. Three months ago, that average had surged to 43 calls a day.

» Domestic Violence Prevention Programs

Taking a trolley bus tour of Kansas City's historic Northeast—alongside Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson, multiple County Legislators, Kansas City councilmen and KC police officers, among others—prompted COMBAT Commissioner Larry Beaty (above) to reflect on the neighborhood where he grew up, endured homelessness and began his addiction recovery. Below are excerpts from Larry's article published this week on jacksoncountycombat.com: 

Breathing New Life Into The Old Northeast

By COMBAT Commission Chair Larry Beaty

Crime and drugs, fueled in no small part by despair, gave Independence Avenue a notorious reputation. People would go to “The Avenue” looking for trouble—and could be sure they’d find it.

Independence Avenue wasn’t always that way. The neighborhood the avenue transverses, Kansas City’s historic Northeast, became historic because it was once among the wealthiest neighborhoods in probably the entire nation.

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I might now live in eastern Jackson County, but I want the thousands still living along the avenue to have what I had growing up in the Northeast—a safe place to call home.

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I do believe the worst days on “The Avenue” are behind us. I know there are a lot of people dedicated to writing a comeback story in this neighborhood, but crime and drugs—not to mention homelessness—remain a persistent problem, hindering these efforts. The comeback often faces setbacks.

I’ve always insisted no community can fully thrive, if it isn’t, first and foremost, safe.

With COMBAT’s mission of “promoting and providing public safety within Jackson County,” (Jackson County Code • Chapter 93), it’s only right that we have a large investment of Community Backed Anti-crime Tax resources in the Northeast. Glancing at our map of COMBAT-supported programs, I count more than 25 locations where services are being provided along the roughly 4½-mile Independence Avenue corridor (north to Gladstone Boulevard and south to 17th Street) between The Paseo and I-435.

Those locations include the various recovery homes being operated by Healing House. The Mattie Rhodes Center serves as the hub for COMBAT’s innovative Striving To Reduce Violence In Neighborhoods (STRiVIN’) initiative. In this role, Mattie Rhodes coordinates with other agencies, as well as police and school officials, in an attempt to identify problems in the Northeast—and together seek solutions.

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Mattie Rhodes staff are putting COMBAT dollars to work. They are right in the thick of it, canvassing the neighborhood, often responding to crime scenes before the police to offer survivors support services. When necessary, they’ll even relocate the survivors through the AdHoc Group Against Crime, another recipient of COMBAT funding, to assure their safety.

As COMBAT Commission chairman, I know the agencies we support in the Northeast are making a difference.

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I’ve never been “soft on crime” and rarely will ever say, “That’s really a good tax.” But during my first stint as COMBAT Commission Chair in 2019, I stated, “We can’t arrest our way out of these problems.”

We needed COMBAT then—and now—because without the resources it provides law enforcement and to non-profit agencies like the Mattie Rhodes Center, turning life around in neighborhoods like the Northeast would be, I believe, lost causes. We, as a community, are in this struggle together.

The days when we would expect the police, alone, to solve our crime problems are over. As one of the KCPD officers said outside a vacant store front, the least pleasant stop on the trolley tour, “We can’t arrest our way out of this.” (Wise words, if I do say so myself, worth repeating often.)

Honestly, I don’t know how this comeback story in this particular neighborhood will unfold. It’s a work in progress with no end in sight. COMBAT is here to help struggling individuals and all struggling neighborhoods.

» Full Article: Breathing New Life Into The Old Northeast