TKC FACT CHECK!!! NONE OF THE REPORTING ON KANSAS CITY'S LOWER HOMICIDE RATE INCLUDES INFO ON SIGNIFICANT MURDER COUNT CHANGES!!!

Award season is upon us again and we must prepare ourselves for politicos participating in a touchdown dance regarding the lower Kansas City homicide rate this year.

However . . .

OTHER THAN TKC, NO OTHER MEDIA OUTLET HAS INFO ONLINE REGARDING THE SIGNIFICANT CHANGES TO THE KANSAS CITY MURDER COUNT THIS YEAR!!!

The official word from police attempts to explain but just doesn't "feel" right to longtime denizens of the urban core:

KCPD assures locals that the new UCR (Uniform Crime Reporting) stats are not intended to lower the official murder count.

However . . .

Remember, KCPD has been a part of stat trouble in the past . . . In 2007, KCPD didn't publish stats to the FBI and they were called out by local newsies and fed law enforcement agencies.

That memory kind of puts this year's celebration of numbers in perspective:

Chief says homicide rate may be even lower than he first thought

Money quote:

"It was the first time Jackson County Combat has cited agencies funded through the special tax levy. The chief told KMBZ, he feels sure Kansas City will finish out 2014 with less than 100 murders and then some."

Fewer murders in Kansas City is a good thing . . . But . . .

PERSPECTIVE: UNDER NEW CRIME REPORTING STATS THAT GUY WITH THE SWORD THAT WAS GUNNED DOWN LAST NIGHT PROBABLY DOESN'T COUNT AS A LOCAL HOMICIDE!!!

The local stats don't include "justified" killings . . .  In fairness, the stats are always changing and murders are added and subtracted consonantly and even years later. So it's up to readers to decide if this number really speaks to the quotient of violence on local streets. Given that the "Blue Sheet" has now been rendered useless and corporate media isn't going to ask any real questions on this topic . . . It's up to this blog community to decide if the lower numbers really represent success and/or a reduced level of violence on local streets.

You decide.