KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The modular jail has been a topic of conversation over the last day after Sunday morning’s deadly shooting near the Power and Light District.
This summer, the Downtown Community Improvement District (CID) put in armed security guards in that area of the city.
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Downtown Council of Kansas City Vice President Sean O’Byrne said the CID added three-armed security guards from 2 p.m. until midnight. The armed security guards are in the area of Grand Boulevard from 6th Street on the north to 14th Street on the south. 14th Street is where the T-Mobile Center is.
“That has worked out, and it’s worked out well,” O’Byrne said Monday.
The shooting Sunday happened just after 4 a.m. though. O’Byrne said they’ll need additional help in those hours.
“I believe what we’re looking at is of course working with our KCPD, with our elected officials and property owners on finding a solution that works on every level because this does touch on each one of those levels,” he continued. “We do believe that there is a need for additional jail cells with a modular jail. We believe that that would help increase police presence certainly, coordination with our property owners, with all of those together, working together, we think that could change the dynamic.”
Back in May, O’Byrne told FOX4 he thought the modular jail could be built in six months.
On Monday, City Spokeswoman Sherae Honeycutt told FOX4 that that jail will not be done by the end of the year. Councilman Nathan Willett told FOX4 that city staff want to get the modular jail done early this spring.
“I’ll be pushing for as soon as possible, but you obviously go into winter months, you have construction obviously barriers,” he said during his interview Monday. “Why can’t we get it done? I mean, let’s look at what is actually slowing up the timeline. If we actually think we have the labor and we have the people who are willing to go out there and work and get it done at that time, let’s do it.”
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Willett says he likes a site for a modular jail off of Front street, somewhere east of the Bally’s Casino where no neighborhoods are. The final site for it hasn’t been decided yet.
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