I get it.

Everyone's now fixated on the race for president, but there were some pretty important elections going on where we live.

Concern over public safety is making the Jackson County prosecutor race one of the most consequential on the upcoming August primary ballot.

Today, I'm announcing that I will not seek another term as Jackson County prosecutor, with Jean Peters Baker heading out the door.

Who will fill her shoes from stubbornly high levels of violent crime to concerns over who is getting charged and for how long.

It's the Jackson County prosecutor debate, next.

Funding for this program comes from the William Kemper Foundation Commerce Bank trustee with additional support from Dave and Jamie Cummings, Bob and Marley's Gourley, the Courtney as Turner Charitable Trust, John H. Mize and Bank of America, N.A.

Co Trustees.

The Frances family Foundation through the Discretionary Fund of David and Janice Francis.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello and welcome.

I'm Nick Haynes.

It used to be said that all politics is local.

Now it seems all politics is national.

This 24 seven attention right now to who will be the next occupant in the White House.

But if your vehicle has just been broken into, you were scrambling away from bullets at the chief's rally or have been devastated by violent crime in your neighborhood.

Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, aren't the people who are going to resolve those issues for you.

We have a police chief, but she's not elected.

Neither are our local judges.

In fact, one of the only people you can hold accountable with your vote, at least, is the county prosecutor.

And that's what this half hour is about.

Now that Jean Peters Baker is stepping aside after nearly a decade on the job, one of these three people about our weekend review table are ready to become the next Jackson County prosecutor.

But who should it be?

Stephanie Burton is a criminal defense attorney who helped kick start Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree's Conviction integrity unit.

Melissa Johnson is a former assistant.

Jackson County prosecutor.

She now serves in the office of Mayor Quinton Lucas as the city's first director of public safety.

And former federal defense attorney John Romanski gets to see what happens in the Jackson County prosecutor's office up close every day.

He works there.

He is an assistant prosecuting attorney in the violent crimes unit.

John, if I ran into you in the grocery store and for 20 seconds or less and asked you why on earth should I vote for you and why do you want to be Jackson County prosecutor, what would you tell me?

Well, why I want to be Jackson County prosecutor is because the job is very important to the public safety of our community.

Why I'm doing it is because I'm the best qualified for it.

I've got over two decades of criminal justice experience on both sides.

I've got leadership experience from going to West Point, being in the Army and leading a unit there.

So if someone's going to lead a large law firm that is tasked with prosecuting cases and keeping us safe, I'm the best qualified for that job.

I've just wandered over to the cereal aisle at Costco and I happened to bump into you, but you were also pressing my flesh to say, Vote for me.

But why should I vote for you?

Absolutely.

I have over a decade of experience in violence, reduction in the criminal justice field, but also my personal connection to this issue that really differentiates me from the rest of the pack I was raised in the urban core with a majority of crime is concentrated and so I have a very different perspective and unique view of what needs to be done to actually sustain state for communities.

Stephanie Burton What makes you unique among all the candidates around this table?

I'll follow on the candidate that has the most well-rounded approach to the criminal justice system.

Not only was I a single mom raising my four kids in Wayne Minor Housing Association, experiencing the violence up close that most people are experiencing.

I'm a former probation and parole officer where I helped people reintegrate into society rather than having the same.

Going back to the Department of Corrections.

And not only that, I've been a criminal trial attorney for the last 14 years.

Well, I've tried over 40 jury trials in over 100 bench trials.

So I've got the most well-rounded and relevant current experience for the job.

We may have seen your yard signs, we may have seen your ads.

But with so much attention, as I said on the presidential race, many of us have not paid much attention to this election.

A lot of us are seeing you for the very first time.

But we do see your ads, as I mentioned, John, we can learn a lot from them.

Let's start with you.

I see first hand the effect that homicides are having in the city.

I see firsthand what happens when people are shot in the county.

And we really need to do something to address that.

Okay, you size up the problem, but what's the single biggest action or decision you could make if you were elected as prosecutor to lower violent crime in Jackson County?

The best thing the Jackson County prosecutor can do is make sure that they're meeting their statutory obligation, which is to prosecute cases in a manner that is swift, certain and fair.

And so that's what needs to be the focus, the primary focus of the office, because that is what the law tells us.

Our job is Now when we do that, we need to make sure that we're partnering with the community.

I have a background in community prosecution where I was going into neighbors homes, you know, just a handful of people in there talking about how to make their yard safe and then their next door neighbor's yard and then the whole block and spreading it out.

And so that's something that I'm very good at because I've done it before and it's something I want to do again.

But the primary mission of the prosecutor's office is always going to be to prosecute cases, felony cases, as swiftly and as certainly as possible.

But Lisa Johnson, fill in the blank for me.

The single biggest action or decision you would make as prosecutor to lower violent crime is blank.

The primary function that John just mentioned is not happening right now.

We have to increase clearance rates.

Right now, 46% of the homicides received by the Jackson County prosecutor's office have not been filed across the board of all cases, 40% of the cases have not been filed by the current Jackson County prosecutor's office.

And so it takes an outside fresh set of eyes to really get to the root of why that is.

And frankly, we need to leverage technology more to clear more of those cases, expedite cell phone analytics so it gives our detectives more actionable information that will transfer over into the courtroom shading.

And then we also need to inspire more witness and victims victim cooperation, which takes a certain level of cultural competence, diversifying the prosecutor's office and really reinstalling the trust in the community between it and the criminal legal system as a whole.

Stephanie, the single biggest action or decision you would make to lower violent crime in Jackson County as long it's got to be again providing swift and certain prosecution, but also making sure we are partnering with our law enforcement officers because that is what has led to this deterioration, is that there has been this rift between the prosecutor's office and the police departments.

And when we don't come in with United Front, the community does not trust us.

They do not trust the police to give them the information.

And then when the police are doing their job, which they are trying the case languish at the prosecutor's office, which makes the cases weaker.

Because as a criminal trial attorney, I know that time is always on the side of the defendant.

And the longer it takes to charge a case, the longer it takes to try the case, the more chance that you're going to have that this violent offender is going to be released to the streets.

Melissa Johnson Let's look at one of your rants.

Residents that have owned their homes for over 40 years deserve to walk outside in peace.

We owe children the right to wait for the school bus without fear, and we owe victims and their families Swift Justice.

We owe families.

Swift justice.

We all know the justice system is as sluggish like molasses.

How are you as a prosecutor can actually speed up justice in Jackson County?

And that's actually what differentiates me from the rest of the Candy candidate pack.

I constantly talk about the how they're right.

We do need swift, certain and sometimes severe consequences.

But the how is always the most important part.

I just spoke to you briefly about my plans to better leverage technology in places like Las Vegas where they analyze cell phones collected in a violent crimes case.

Their clearance rates are over 89% because they do those analytics within 48 hours.

Of course, cultural competence.

When I was a prosecutor back in 2014, I was the attorney that a lot of people called on to get witnesses to testify, to get victims to believe in the system and our ability to deliver the swift justice that they so deserve.

Because, again, I was raised in a neighborhood heavily impacted by crime.

The amount of times during this campaign that I've heard from people, I've never wanted to vote for a prosecutor a day in my life, but I want to vote for you.

Okay.

But, John, we're talking about the system not being swift enough.

It's been too sluggish.

But you're in the office right now.

You're concerned about that response.

I'm concerned about it because I can see that we can do better than what we're doing.

And the reason I know that is because you've been in the office, which the speaker did you say that to her at the time?

We have talked about a lot of different issues in the office when I was talking about running for office.

And so we've had discussions about things.

One of the things that we need to do, though, is it comes from my military background of having a battle book, policies and procedures.

I've talked about earlier about this as a law firm, 150 people.

And so you have to have experience and leadership in order to do that.

So in the Army, we had these battle books that everything we did for training, we wrote the battle books so that if you went down or you were injured or something, someone else could pick up that battle book and know exactly what was going on.

That kind of policy and procedure, the training of of people in the office to do, you know, here are the standards.

And once you have the standards, then you're able to go ahead and help them meet those standards.

You train them up and then if they need more training, you get more training.

And then if they don't meet the standards, then there's some discipline that can be involved.

But that's how you move the cases through.

The other part of it, though, is that we're still a little sluggish coming out of COVID.

You know, we've just now started getting more and more jury panels in there that can try these cases.

And we need to make sure as a prosecutor that our cases are prepared on that first setting.

So when a defense attorney asks for a continuance, we're ready to object to that so that we can move it forward, because I think the judges will try the cases.

We just need to be able to to get them in a position to do that.

Stephanie Burton, How would your approach be different?

Well, my approach would be that when the police are bringing us the cases that we act on them right away because right now they'll languish for eight months to two years before they're actually picked up and charged.

And then when you try to send that back to the police department, those witnesses have gone away, they've gotten discouraged, they've gotten disinterested, they've died.

And without doing that, then you're showing the community that you don't care about their interest.

The other thing is our prosecutor's office, it's not very visible.

Our prosecutors need to be at the neighborhood association meeting with the community engagement officers so that the community could ask and hold them accountable.

And with George, don't you think Jean Petersburg, it seems to always be in front of a camera, always in front of a podium in press conferences, doesn't she?

In front of a camera, In front of a podium.

But what are you going to be in front of the community in person, not in front of a camera or a podium when people are looking.

But what are you doing privately?

What are your officers in the office doing privately?

Go out there so that the people know who you are.

They can identify these prosecutors in a lineup.

And when we're talking about a battle, if you've been there for three years, why the hell do we not have one yet?

Let's look at one of your ads.

Stephanie Burton is your next Jackson County prosecutor.

I will fight for safer streets in every neighborhood.

And the full measure of justice for every victim.

I understand the challenges standing in the way, the distrust between the community and the police.

All right.

Do you understand the distrust between the community and the police?

What's the single biggest action you would do, though, to bring the community and the police and the prosecutor's office together?

The first legal action is meeting with all of those department heads, the police chiefs and stakeholders, because you have to let them know that we are working together.

And so we can't have Jackson County like the kids in a bad custody battle between the police and the prosecutor's office, because then the community runs amuck.

If we are showing a united front and working together, then the community will have some buy in and get on board.

It's not happening now, John.

It's starting to move in that direction.

And let's be fair about this.

The dysfunction that has been broadcast was something that was primarily between one police department and the Jackson County prosecutor's office and one police department and the mayor's office.

So these other departments have not had the same issues.

But it is correct that we need to rebuild the relationship.

And right now, I have received the endorsement of all three of the FOP lodges that covered Jackson County.

They trust me to be the one to rebuild the relationship that will build the trust in the system so that we can have confidence in the system from the community standpoint.

I was rummaging around your website and I also saw the community Trust in the Police was a big part of that.

But what actually single thing would you do, single decision you would make to bridge that gap between the community and police?

As prosecutor?

I think a great example is something that I'm already doing helping Casey P.D.

implement our new focused deterrence strategy called Save Casey.

And for those that might not be familiar, focused deterrence is identifying those most likely to shoot or be shot and then inviting them to this meeting where they get two options either a new evaluation off of the services that we have to offer or be land yourself on that prioritized prosecution list.

Well, when it was time to deliver those invitations, I actually went to the doors of known shooters with two police officers having very real, genuine and authentic conversations with these young, primarily men of color.

And well, those conversations were so genuine and so authentic, even with two officers there.

A lot of them, 19, to be exact, came on their own volition.

It's about presence.

It's about accountability, it's about ingenuity.

And yes, it's about cultural competence as well.

Joe mentioned a little bit earlier that the Jackson County prosecutor's office is akin to being the head of a 150 person law firm and I certainly don't think about it that way.

The management side is incredibly important, but have any of you run 150 person law firm, any of you run any organization with 150 people in it?

Yes, I have.

I was an executive officer of a company in the United States Army stationed up on the DMZ in Korea.

And so I've had this exact kind of experience, different field, but I know exactly what leadership looks like.

I've been trying to do it through West Point.

Does that put you at a disadvantage then, when it comes to actually managing an organization of this size?

Absolutely not.

And frankly, Mr. Matthew doesn't have a leadership position in his own office right now.

On the other hand, I actually my job, my current job director of public safety, puts me at the center of working collaboratively with law enforcement, with community neighborhood associations, activist organizations.

And I'm actually built programmatic efforts from the ground up that I lead, not only Partners for Peace, which is included in every media advisory that you receive about homicides and shootings, but also a shady, wide, multi-disciplinary public safety task force that city Council asked me to lead with representatives of every single city department where we look at commercial businesses that have had a lot of public safety challenges as well.

Stephanie, your website shows lots of awards that you've won in the area of law and in the community, but have you run an organization that big?

I have not run an organization that big.

I actually own and operate three law firms, if not 150 people, but I'm the one that's actively leading now because the director of public safety, the public safety is a Department of one and a staff of none.

So there's no people that are actually being directed.

And when John talks about his West Point experience, I respect that.

But that was 30 years ago.

And so management has changed style has changed.

And as he mentioned before in a previous narrative that he gave, it was before we even had cell phones.

So things have changed in the last 30 years since he has been in leadership and he's not in leadership now.

While murders get most of the headlines, there's been an uptick in property crimes all across the county, and residents are getting frustrated.

Imagine having your car stolen not once, not twice, but three times.

It just feels like an epidemic and it doesn't feel like the police really care much about it.

There have been almost 800 car break ins in Kansas City, Missouri, since the start of the year.

Tisha Mark called police after she found the back window of her new truck busted out and glass littered all over the floor, board violated to have someone come along and just tear up your property.

It's it's horrible.

I don't feel secure anymore.

Window after window at the window after window was busted.

More than $200,000 worth of jewelry stolen from a store on the plaza deposit.

You always think it's very secure and you don't expect it.

So it's kind of personal.

I'm still focused on that driver in that first clip that said his car had been stolen three times this year, and he seemed at least to say that the police didn't care.

We heard, though, from officers that say that, well, when they make arrests, the cases are not prosecuted.

What is the truth?

And what would you do differently, John?

Well, I think it's a combination of things.

Number one, we need to make sure that the police understand that the Jackson County prosecutor's office on these felony cases is open for business.

There have been too many times where neighbors of mine and I had my own car broken into a couple of weekends ago.

So I understand what's going on.

But the the the idea that we're not open for business is wrong.

And that needs to be communicated to the police because they cannot be telling the people when they go to the crime scene that we're not interested.

We are interested.

We do need to be engaged in that.

And so it's a messaging issue there.

The other part of it, though, is to be fair to the police, is they're understaffed still.

And so they're not able to do this broad based policing like they used to do.

And it has a real world effect.

It leads to people feeling like there's a sense of lawlessness in the community.

And so we need to partner with the police to do a better job of getting cases through when they are investigated and sent to our office, but also trying to figure out a way so that the police can get back to not focusing so much on the violent crime that they're leaving other parts of the community exposed.

Melissa, what would you how would your approach be different?

The best way to show KPD or any local law enforcement agency that the prosecutor's office is open for business, for property crimes is to actually charge them and stop declining hundreds and hundreds of property crimes cases, as was done according to the Jackson County Prosecutors website.

The dashboard that was done last year.

And so what I plan to do is pull all of those property crimes cases out of the general crimes unit, where they do get lost in the sea of everything else.

I was a general crimes prosecutor.

You have everything from a shooting to a lower level assault on your desk.

Naturally, a nonviolent property crime falls to the bottom of totem pole of importance.

Well, I'm going to set up a separate standalone property crimes prosecution division so that our licensed attorneys can continue to focus on the more egregious cases, the shootings.

I'm going to staff the new property crimes division with law students.

We're going to to turn it into a law student clinic.

They have been proven successful all over the country.

And this way the cases get the exclusive focus that they deserve.

The victims feel heard and advocated for.

But most importantly, Nick, the offenders are held accountable for their criminality continues to escalate.

Stephanie, your approach would be one.

My approach is a little different because I know that law students who are rule 13 certified can't do the work of an attorney.

And so you have to have licensed attorneys to be able to do that work.

Otherwise, it slows down the process and makes it three times as slow.

So what we'll be doing is getting the low hanging fruit and actually charging the cases so that we can hold these people accountable, because when you don't charge it, then it lets that criminality escalate because it starts with breaking into the car and stealing a gun.

That gun is in use in a murder, a robbery, a carjacking and things that escalate.

I was appointed on a case where a young man had been in custody for a robbery or two people had been shot and two separate robberies were two separate people had been shot.

He was released on a signature bond, stole a series of cars.

There was no motive for a bond revocation.

There was no charges filed until he stole a car, ran from the place and T-boned somebody.

And that person died.

And then I got appointed on the murder case.

When you refuse to prosecute and hold people accountable, then it ends up being a snowball of more violence and and unchecked criminality.

We're going to charge those cases and we're going to hold those people as securities have a lot of discretion to decide which cases they want to take and which to drop.

On her watch, Jean Peters Baker stopped prosecuting nonviolent drug offenses.

She announced she would not prosecute abortion related crimes after the state of Missouri outlawed the procedure.

And she supported Kansas City's decision to not enforce new transgender restrictions passed by the Missouri legislature.

Those were her choices.

If you're elected prosecutor, John, what crimes, if any, would you choose not to prosecute?

I don't know that there's any case where you could say that we will not at least review a case because it is the job of the county prosecutor's office to do that.

I'll pick it in the abortion field, though.

Just to give an example.

So I like my fellow candidates.

I agree that the state of Missouri should not be regulating what happens in a doctor's office or with people's moral decisions.

But when you say you're not going to prosecute a case like that, then you're forcing the police to take it to the attorney general's office.

And I think the outcome was probably going to be different.

Stephanie, are there cases that you would say specific crimes that would already be on your do not prosecute list?

Absolutely.

And I respectfully disagree with my colleague because just like Jean said, that she wasn't going to prosecute these drug crimes unless they had a violent nexus.

I can stand up like I have done.

And I was the first in this race to do to say I am not going to prosecute women and their health care providers for helping them to choose autonomy in their own bodies.

If the AG wants to take that up with me, I welcome the fight.

So no, I will not be prosecuting those cases and I will be standing with women, as I've said frequently in this campaign.

Melissa Johnson Are there cases, are there specific crimes that you would say, no, I'm not going to prosecute as the only candidate endorsed by Planned Parenthood in this race.

I'm a bit frustrated at the failed attempts to rationalize prosecuting women and providers for seeking reproductive health.

Under my administration, we will not be taking those cases on.

And because there is concurrent and original jurisdiction, the attorney general is more than welcome, as he is known to do, to insert himself into prosecuting those cases.

But as it pertains to drug cases, I will not be prosecuting possession level cases.

So I will be continuing the current policy on the books for possession limited by distribution.

That's a different story.

Let me go a little further that this is a social issue all around the country.

And I was looking, for instance, in Boston, District Attorney Rachel Rollins has been getting headlines for announcing 15 crimes she will not prosecute, including receiving stolen property and shoplifting.

Would you decline to prosecute those?

No, I will be prosecuting those.

A lot of people think that those are victimless crimes and they're not, especially for small businesses to be prosecuting those crimes.

I will.

And I'll also be charging the drug possession crimes because I don't believe in delaying a person's deliverance.

We have underutilized drug courts that are at risk of losing funding or these people can get a substance abuse treatment at no cost to them.

We also have an underutilized mental health court because sometimes when we're treating drug addiction, we have to realize that we have dual diagnosis is where we're treating bipolar disorder and depression and other mental illnesses where we can properly askance those people.

John Receiving stolen property and shoplifting, would you decline to prosecute those?

No.

And let's talk about what prosecution is.

It isn't necessarily always charging the case.

There are other avenues that we can use to approach.

So when we talk about we're declining 40% of the cases, a lot of times it's because the evidence isn't there.

Other times we're declining the cases or dismissing them because we have other alternatives to help people along.

So, you know, we talk about the diversion.

We talk about the mental health court, the veterans court, the drug court.

Those are all avenues for us that we can use to help the community and we can make sure that they are on the right path.

Now, when they turn around and keep re-offending because they are not victimless crimes, when they keep reoffending and become chronic offenders, then just like the trigger pullers who are going to prison under my administration, the chronic nonviolent offenders need to start putting their mind around the idea that they may be going to prison to campaign.

Some are about comparing and contrasting.

Finally, the single biggest thing that makes you different than the other candidates on this table today is what really leadership, which is why I'm so glad that you asked that question a couple of minutes ago.

I am the only candidate that has navigated a legislative body that has secured votes to get a budgetary item across the finish line.

I'm the only candidate that has built a programmatic effort from the ground up and the only candidate that has worked in politics.

And so I can do all of the leadership ability on top of my extensive, extensive legal history as well.

John, I'm not a politician like she is, and so I'm not so much concerned about making things look a certain way.

I'm about action and making things actually work for the benefit of the community.

Stephanie.

I'm the only one that has current relevant experience leading while I manage an office of three different law offices.

Also, I'm the only one with current relevant trial experience.

I've got more trial experience than these two combined.

I know this job has been the courtroom, but she hasn't been the courtroom this decade.

And John has been living it in the courtroom this decade.

So I'm the only one that has the experience and current relevant knowledge to be able to lead and take to lead this 150 person law firm across the finish line to make sure that we can try cases, that we can train our young attorneys and to make sure that we can earn the community's trust and get back to where we need to be.

I watch a lot of Law and Order and Chicago PD, which puts me in a good place to be able to ask these questions today.

You have been watching the three Democratic candidates who want to be the next Jackson County prosecutor.

Is it going to be Stephanie Burton, John Grabowski or Melissa Johnson?

Thank you all for being with us today.

Advanced voting, by the way, is underway ahead of the August six election.

Public safety is on the ballot actually all over the metro this August from police funding on the Missouri ballot to a competitive race for Johnson County District attorney.

And a really interesting campaign going on for Johnson County sheriff.

In fact, we invited both candidates to join us on this program.

Neither of them responded.

But some good news.

We've joined with Casey Wall and other nonprofit news media in Kansas City to break down every race on your ballot on both sides of state line.

Check it out at Casey Voter Guide dot org.

A final housekeeping note.

We were bringing you the Missouri governor's debate this week, but President Biden's address to the nation Wednesday night bumped that forum.

You can now watch the Republican and Democratic candidates square off this Sunday at five on our second channel, Kansas City PBS.

To I'm Nick Haynes from all of us here at Kansas City, PBS.

Be well, keep calm and carry on.