On April 8, Kansas Citians will vote on a renewal of the current public safety sales tax. For the last 15 years, the quarter-cent tax has funded the construction of the police department’s Regional Police Academy and Shoal Creek Station in the Northland, the renovation of the South Patrol Station and the development of the Leon Jordan Campus on the East Side, where the crime lab processes thousands of DNA samples and rape kits a year.
City leaders are proposing that the revenue be used to meet ongoing police department infrastructure needs, address long-standing deficiencies with the 911 system, and to construct a new Municipal Rehabilitation and Detention Center adjacent to the new Jackson County Detention Center at Interstate 70 and U.S. Highway 40.
Since closing the municipal jail in 2009, the city has lacked an adequate detention strategy for people prosecuted in the municipal criminal justice system. The city currently contracts with Missouri’s Vernon and Johnson counties for 105 beds to house its inmates. In 2023, 64% of the inmate population was detained for violent crimes such as assault and domestic assault.