Funkhouser Wants To Add 100 More Cops Around Schools

Web Staff (KCTV5.com) — Adding more police officers around Kansas City’s schools was something that had Mayor Mark Funkhouser talking on Friday.

As classes let out on Friday at Central High School on Linwood, police were out around the campus.

“Central is something else,” said Valerie Kinderman, who was there to pick up her daughter. “They fight a lot.”

More police could be coming, not only to the streets around Central, but to the areas around other public schools.

“We want to add 100 cops and focus them around schools,” Funkhouser said during a taping of Your Kansas City, which will air at 1 p.m. Sunday on My-KSMO TV. “People tell us the issue of safety really impacts the schools.”

Even with fewer schools to patrol with the proposed closing of some Kansas City, Mo., schools, the mayor wants the public safety tax to go ahead. The mayor’s office said the tax could generate $5 million, which would be enough to hire about 100 more officers. The officers might be used to patrol before and after school in the city’s 14 public and charter school districts, both north and south of the Missouri River.

“Let’s hope it works,” said Larry Garrison, a Central High grandparent. “Let’s hope it works.”

For one mom, though, the idea of more police is a start, but not a solution.

The issue is still a long way from being put before voters in August. It needs the legislators, the governor and the City Council to approve the move.