Local Issue

For this assignment. I had a hard time choosing a problem for me to solve, since I only moved to this area when the semester first started. I don’t know much about Kansas City local problems, but I googled it and started to discover that public safety is a big issue here. I came to find out that Kansas city’s overall crime rate is 112% higher than the national average. To put that into perspective- Kansas City is safer than only 3% of the cities in the United States. We all have a 1 in 17 chance of becoming a victim of any crime. Apparently public safety is always a top priority of city leaders. They see the alleviation of crime as one of the most critical parts of their job. I learned through research that the country’s incarceration rate remains among the highest in the world, despite the steady decline in violent crimes. This all has been eye-opening to me, considering the amount of times I travel off campus during the evenings. There is always a chance that I could be victim to a crime on any given day. Being a teenaged girl, this is already alarming. We have so many precautions to take when going out alone- For example, we place our keys strategically between our knuckles, purchase pepper spray, or sign up for self-defense classes. I hate that those are things I actually have to think about when going out for food or groceries. I’m not sure that this is an easy problem to fix, but there are things I think the community can do. I think even here on campus, there is insufficient lighting at night. When coming home from the library it’s always incredibly dark and I wait for my friends to be done so I don’t have to walk alone, and I know streetlights can always be added throughout the city- adequate lighting is good lighting people! Another thing that can be done is the addition of surveillance cameras around public spaces, and possibly having a city-wide curfew for younger aged residents. I think even these few additions to the community can improve the safety of Kansas City, and maybe even bring more people in because of the safety appeal we could present.