Last June, Kansas City Star reporter Christine Vendel was named by the Kansas City Press Club as its “Journalist of the Year” for the second time.
If she submits her most recent story analyzing crime in Kansas City the Press Club might just have a three time winner.
Vendel’s front-page Sunday (6/3) special report headlined “Many Bullets, Little Blame” highlighted the problems Kansas City police have trying to solve shootings when the victims refuse to cooperate.
Amazingly, about 60% of shootings in Kansas City weren’t fully investigated by police because victims declined to prosecute. But Vendel noted to Bottom Line that figure doesn’t really tell the whole story.
”So yes, it’s true that those 60-percent weren’t prosecuted…BUT it actually understates the problem, because just 10 percent of shootings last year resulted in criminal charges,” she emphasizes. “That means 90-percent weren’t prosecuted.”
She highlighted the problem in her Sunday story.
“Without a victim, police stop investigating and prosecutors don’t file charges-longtime practices that shocked some national experts and police officials elswhere,” she wrote. “The shooters remain free and emboldened. Residents grow more fearful.”
BLC asked Vendel about the work that went into developing her blockbuster story.
“I had been wanting to do this story for several years, after noticing an increasing number of references on shooting reports to victims not wanting to prosecute,” she says. “It seemed incredible to me that someone would basically be the victim of a failed homicide, and then NOT cooperate with police. Police didn’t track this statistic specifically, so I wanted to know exactly how often this happened. And I wanted to know why.”
And, as regular KC Star readers know, when Vendel decides to know “why” something occurs that’s when her hard legwork begins. Credit should also go to Star management to allow her the time necessary to devote to this important story.
“I decided to collect all shooting reports starting on January 1, 2011, so I could collect a full year’s worth,” she notes. “I just put the reports in a file every day.
“In October, I started asking police for reports that I had missed (from my days off, weekends, etc.) By January 2012, I had confirmed a list with police of all the aggravated assaults (that involved guns and an injury) that had been reported in 2011.
“My bosses then “detached” me in January from my day-to-day duties so I could read through the 400+ reports, work with police to determine which cases had uncooperative victims, find victims to interview, etc. It was during that process that I realized police closed cases where victims didn’t want to cooperate, which meant they were closing the majority of shooting cases. Police explained that the Jackson County prosecutor wouldn’t take cases without cooperating victims.”
Vendel says that she was “detached” for six months on the project, but had been working on it for several months prior.
When the actual figures came to light she determined that about 6 of out 10 shootings were never prosecuted.
“I was kind of surprised by the final tally of 60-percent. I knew it was a serious problem, because that’s what had drawn my attention…but I had thought, at most, 50 percent would say no to prosecute,” she explains. “I was also surprised by the extent of fear in the community.”
On Monday she did a follow-up story offering some possible solutions for the situation.