Stacie Short saw the liaison among police officers and community members with a federally funded initiative in Fairmount and soon wanted the same for Englewood Station.
“It wasn’t a comfortable place to be. It wasn’t a comfortable place to come,” said Short, the Englewood Business Association treasurer and a lifelong Independence resident. “Our goal as the Englewood Business Association is to make a walkable, friendly business community. We were far from that, and whether it was perceived or real, we had some issues with safety that didn’t help us.”
That was five years ago. Englewood’s business district had many vacancies, Short said. She was serving on the Weed and Seed steering committee in Fairmount, but it had reached its maximum funding capacity. The police officers at Fairmount substation would be reabsorbed into Independence’s police headquarters.
But the Weed and Seed transition from Fairmount to Englewood wasn’t an automatic happening, Short said. She said the initiative existed with the same community partners – churches, business owners, police, the U.S. Attorney’s Office – even as the Englewood plan went without funding for two-and-a-half years.
The official recognition as a Weed and Seed area took place in 2007. Funding followed through a year later, but the total funding for each site is capped at $1 million, or roughly five years.
“The efforts are working,” according to Maj. Gregg Wilkinson, the Independence Police Department’s Community Services Division commander. In 2006-07, the Weed and Seed area saw a 68 percent reduction in robberies, with an additional 8 percent decrease in 2008-09.
Other crimes, including aggravated assaults, larcenies, stolen automobiles and common assaults also decreased in those years.
Robberies in the area for 2010, though, will increase because of individuals in Kansas City and Independence linked to business robberies. Most of those associated, Wilkinson said, have been identified and charged with the robberies.
The Englewood and Maywood Weed and Seed area extends from Truman Road to 31st Street and from Blue Ridge Boulevard to Sterling Avenue.
For one month, Short has served as the interim site director of the Weed and Seed area in Englewood and Maywood. The NorthWest Communities Development Corporation executive director has previously administered the role full time, along with payment from the annual grant. With the NWCDC top position still vacant from Warren Adams-Leavitt’s departure several months ago, though, Short is filling the gap.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Weed and Seed is more of a strategy rather than a grant program with 250 sites nationwide. Law enforcement agencies and prosecutors help “weed” out criminals and drug abusers. Both public and private organizations then “seed” prevention, treatment and neighborhood restoration efforts.
But the goal, Short said, is not to force the residents out of western Independence and into neighboring cities like Kansas City.
“We work with what opportunities that we do have to make sure these people assimilate into our community in the best manner they can,” she said.
In collaboration with the Independence School District and the Local Investment Commission, Weed and Seed helps families and children whose parent (or sometimes, both parents, Short said) is incarcerated or is soon to be released. For the first time, starting this academic year, Nowlin Middle School has a school resource officer, in a large part because of Weed and Seed, Short said.
“Everything that we accomplish in this Weed and Seed area absolutely has a ripple effect,” she said, “whether it is investments, improvements or community awareness. It definitely grows.”
Independence, MO —
