March 21, 2025 • 25 mins
Raymore Police Chief Jim Wilson shares information about the Raymore Police Department, ways our residents can avoid being victims of crime and details on the upcoming Public Safety Sales Tax question on the April 8 ballot.
Learn more about Raymore Police at www.raymore.com/police
Learn more about the City of Raymore's Communications Department at www.raymore.com/communications
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Melissa Harmer (00:13):
Welcome to Say More in Raymore, the City of
Raymore's official podcast.
I'm your host, Melissa Harmer,the Communications Director at
the City of Raymore.
In this series we're giving youan insider's look at the things
happening in your citygovernment, whether it's new
developments shaping thecommunity, upcoming events or
the latest news that impactseveryday life in Raymore.
We'll also introduce you to thepeople who work behind the
scenes, our dedicated City staffwho make it all happen.
(00:35):
So stay tuned, because we'rehere to help you get to know the
people, the projects and theprograms that make Raymore a
great place to live, work andvisit, one episode at a time.
In this episode we'll take acloser look at the Raymore
Police Department with PoliceChief Jim Wilson.
But first here are a fewupcoming dates to keep in mind.
Tuesday, april 8th is thegeneral municipal election.
Polls are open from 6 am to 7pm.
(00:57):
Raymore voters will vote oncity council members and a
public safety sales tax in theamount of one quarter of one
percent.
Saturday, April 19th is theannual Raymore Easter Festival
at Recreation Park, and thatstarts at 10 am.
If you're planning to attendwith your children, don't be
late, because the egg huntstarts right at 10 am and 15,000
eggs go really fast.
If you are an artist or knowone, the Raymore Arts Commission
(01:21):
is now accepting entries forits second annual Power of
Perspectives art competition.
Entries are accepted throughApril 14th and the awards
reception is open to everyone onFriday, April 25th at
Centerview, our event space at227 Municipal Circle.
The doors will open at 6 pm and, in addition to viewing an
exhibit of all of the art, we'llhave live entertainment,
(01:41):
complimentary refreshments, acash bar and, of course, the
awards.
Cash prizes will be awarded inthe categories of painting,
photography, drawing and asculpture/ multimedia/ other
category.
Learn more about thecompetition and the awards
reception at Raymore.
com/ pop, Raymore.
com/pop.
Now let's get to our guest,Raymore Police Chief Jim Wilson,
(02:02):
who has been with thedepartment for 32 years.
Welcome, Chief.
Chief Wilson (02:08):
Thank you for having me.
Good afternoon.
Melissa Harmer (02:16):
So tell me a little bit about your history
with the Raymore PoliceDepartment and how things have
changed since you've been here.
Chief Wilson (02:19):
So I started in Raymore in 1993.
It is now 2025, so obviouslythere's been some huge changes
within the community.
When I started it was about7,500, and now we're over 25,000
.
During my time working forRaymore, I have been in several
positions throughout my careerin assignments from detective,
(02:41):
patrol officer, captain, deputychief, chief, now chief.
Melissa Harmer (02:47):
When you first started with the city, you
weren't a patrol officer.
Tell me about what your firstgig was here.
Chief Wilson (02:56):
So my first assignment here, I was loaned
out to the highway patrol and Iworked on a drug task force.
And even when I came back fromthe drug task force after about
three years task force and evenwhen I came back from the drug
task force after about threeyears, four years, I represented
the city of Raymore as well asall the cities in nine counties
on the task force board
Melissa Harmer (03:13):
And you had long flowing hair
Chief Wilson (03:15):
I had long hair at that time.
Yes, anybody, most of thecommunity that know me know that
I don't have hair nowunfortunately, so
Melissa Harmer (03:23):
Must have been a sight to behold.
Chief Wilson (03:25):
Yes, you know, I remember those days very fondly.
Melissa Harmer (03:30):
Of course.
Tell me a little bit about theorganization of the police
department.
Chief Wilson (03:36):
So currently today , we have two divisions.
We have the support divisionand we have the operations
division.
Under the support division, wehave the operations division.
Under the support division, wehave the communications unit.
We have records and crimeanalysts as a unit of one.
We have property and evidence,which is a unit of one as well,
(03:58):
and we have animal control,which we have two animal control
officers.
The operations side currentlyhas patrol and investigations.
We have right now, I am allowed, 32 full-time employees,
post-certified employees, whichare officers.
(04:20):
So with 32 full-time policeofficers, certified police
officers.
In order to be a certifiedpolice officer, you go to an
academy, you get post certifiedand then you have to maintain
your certification throughadditional training every year,
(04:42):
and that training is broken downand mandated by the Missouri
Post.
Melissa Harmer (04:46):
Talk about some of the training that you do that
.
I know that CIT training wasn'tinitially required or taught at
the academy, but we did it here, so tell me a little bit about
that.
Chief Wilson (04:57):
Well, CIT back probably 2008, 2009, under the
position of captain, I startedsending all the officers to CIT
training to deal with criticalincidents with folks that are
having types of mental health orsomebody in crisis, and it
(05:18):
takes special training to learnhow to de-escalate those type of
situations with folks and wepretty much have every officer
certified in that, regardless ifthey're an expert in that
particular area.
It's still good to go to thosetypes of trainings to learn how
to de-escalate folks that are incrisis.
Melissa Harmer (05:40):
And, in case anybody doesn't know, CIT means
Crisis Intervention Team, andthose types of calls do seem to
be more prominent now than theyused to be.
And talk about ourinvestigations unit.
Chief Wilson (05:51):
Our investigations unit.
We have one detective sergeantand we have two investigators.
I have my community outreachofficer, who's also my SRO in
that room.
However, she is assigned to thepatrol operations captain.
The investigators are assignedto the detective sergeant.
I have all new uh folks in thatunit and including the
(06:16):
detective sergeant, soeverybody's under close training
, um, and we're moving rightalong.
They're learning by trial, byfire.
They have plenty of cases andtheir caseload and they carry
anywhere between 75 and 100cases that's a lot at one time
and just quickly.
Melissa Harmer (06:36):
SRO is school resource officer so that officer
that's okay.
She uh goes around to thedifferent elementary schools
within Raymore city limits.
Chief Wilson (06:43):
Yep, she, uh, she goes to to the different
elementary schools withinRaymore City Limits.
Yep, she goes to all theschools within the Ray- Pec
School District if needed, buther primary focus are all the
schools within Raymore CityLimits.
Melissa Harmer (06:54):
Great, so have we covered every area of the
department yet?
Chief Wilson (06:57):
No, I don't believe we have.
Melissa Harmer (06:58):
Okay, let's keep going.
Chief Wilson (06:59):
Okay, so we have patrol next under the operation
side patrol.
Melissa Harmer (07:04):
And I know we have four sergeants who
supervise 20 patrol officers.
How do those shifts work?
Chief Wilson (07:12):
So our patrol division is made up of one
sergeant and we try to have fourpatrolmen on a shift.
We're not quite there.
Some shifts have three and aswe have that many when one takes
off, that leaves a little bitof a void there we do have.
(07:33):
So we have two rotations.
Within those rotations are theshifts that I just mentioned.
So we'll have a day shift and anight shift, and then we also
have a split shift, whichbasically is a two-to-two car.
The two-to-two car comes onduty and helps handle the peak
times for schools getting out atthree in the afternoon.
(07:58):
We have folks coming home fromwork and then they're finding
things that are amiss or theyneed to report something, and
then we have a little bit of theovernight hours as well.
Melissa Harmer (08:08):
Okay, so we're covering it all 24-7, 365.
Chief Wilson (08:11):
Yep.
Melissa Harmer (08:12):
Anything else with our breakdown of our police
department that you want toshare.
Chief Wilson (08:17):
You know the community outreach.
We have a specific person thathas that title.
She's very busy with theschools.
So every officer, everycommander, we are all community
outreach officers.
We're all participating andhelping.
You know, right now we have theCitizens Academy.
(08:37):
It just started last Wednesdaynight.
This Wednesday will be nighttwo of the Citizens Academy and
you know we are pretty fortunate.
We have 19 citizens in thatacademy but they're all learning
what we do and how we do it.
My SRO is running that programoutside of her daily activities
(09:00):
with the schools.
Melissa Harmer (09:02):
All right, so tell me about some other ways
that you have a proactiveapproach to community outreach
and other programs that areoffered by the police department
.
Chief Wilson (09:11):
So the community partnership is one of the most
important partnerships withinpolice work.
I mean we have partnershipswith other law enforcement
agencies, other prosecutors, allthe Fed folks, but really our
biggest partner is our community.
When we're not out there, it'stheir eyes and ears that are
(09:37):
telling us what's going on andwe couldn't do our job without
them.
They're like the unspoken herofor the pd.
When they see something, theysay something, they call us.
So, with that being said, youknow we have the neighborhood
watch programs that we'll go outand assist with.
We have the, actually thecitizen academy that I just
mentioned.
We will have traffic radar signplacements based upon whatever
(09:59):
the community feels the needsmay be.
Like, if there's a neighborhoodthat feels that they're having
higher speed in theirneighborhoods, that they can
call us and we'll go put out asign or put out the radar
trailer to help put know, putout a visual aid to show the
folks look, slow down in thisarea and determine also if the
(10:21):
complaint is valid.
Then we also do shop with a copthe drug take back.
We have one coming up at theend of the month of April April
26th, Saturday, 10 am to 2 pm atRaymore PD and Price Chopper.
Melissa Harmer (10:36):
So that's unwanted, expired, unused
prescription medications.
Get them out of your cabinets.
Chief Wilson (10:43):
Get them out of the cabinet or wherever they are
the tubs I think a lot ofpeople use tubs these days, no
such thing as the cabinets butbring them up and either drop
them off at the PD or take themover to Price Chopper Vestibule
to the officer that will besitting in the vestibule taking
the prescription drugs as well.
Melissa Harmer (11:02):
And that's just for safe disposal, because it's
not really safe to throw them inthe trash.
It's not safe to flush them alot of times just because of
what's in the medications andthen keeping them in your house
can potentially lead to thewrong person accidentally
getting some of them or abuse.
So it's just a really good ideato safely dispose of them.
Chief Wilson (11:22):
I would agree.
Melissa Harmer (11:23):
What are some ways that our residents can keep
themselves safe and avoid whatI've heard you refer to as
crimes of opportunity?
Chief Wilson (11:33):
Well, you know, basically we're going to harden
the target, meaning, you know,with folks that are they're
going to go to communities wherethey feel like they can go and
commit the crime.
Crime of opportunity.
Meaning if you leave valuablesin your car, if you leave your
garage door open, if you youleave your house unlocked, folks
(11:58):
may come by at the wrong timeand break into your car,
especially if it's unlocked.
They don't have to break in,they just open the door.
We will get reports where folkssay, well, I'm sure I locked
the door.
Well, there's no broken glassand there's not keys.
These folks don't have keys tothe doors, so sometimes folks
forget to lock them and theykeep a lot of valuables in their
(12:22):
cars, whether it be computersor money.
What have you?
You know, I think, that we putout that information three and
four times a year, maybe evenmore than that.
When I come to you and say, hey, can you put out?
You know that that's a seems tobe a big problem.
Now, if you leave your garagedoor open, don't count on us
coming by.
But we often will catch thatwhen we're in the neighborhoods
(12:45):
and come and knock on your doorat 1: 30 or 2 o'clock in the
morning say, hey, your garagedoor is open, you might want to
close that
Melissa Harmer (12:52):
And I don't think I've heard of anyone being
upset that you've let them knowthat in the middle of the night
.
Chief Wilson (12:55):
No, they're usually pretty happy.
They are pretty happy aboutthat.
Melissa Harmer (12:59):
So remember the 9 pm routine is what we talk
about a lot in the summer,especially with now the weather
getting nicer and you're outdoing yard work and whatever.
So just try to remember tocheck, keep your garage door,
make sure your garage doors areclosed by nine yeah, by nine.
Chief Wilson (13:13):
If not nine, you know, by 9:05
Melissa Harmer (13:16):
Sure.
Chief Wilson (13:17):
And then a couple other other key things.
You know, if you're going toleave for an extended period of
time, make sure you shut yourwindows.
The spring's coming up, sopeople have a tendency to leave
their windows open.
It's mainly around the holidaytimes, however, if you drive
around the city and you seepeople that put out you know,
the 95-inch TV box or somethingof that nature, something that
(13:44):
tells somebody you havesomething nice in your residence
you might want to cut up thatbox, at least make it to where
no one can tell what it was.
Melissa Harmer (13:53):
That's good advice.
Talk to me now about your goalsfor the police department and
kind of typical day in the lifeof a police officer.
Chief Wilson (14:05):
So, with regard to the typical life, and you know
our goals for the policedepartment, our goals are simply
this (14:13):
you know we take a lot of pride on being very proactive
in our community, from me allthe way down to the officer that
we just hired last week.
You know that's a culture thatwe just have here in Raymore and
I think that, that being said,I think that the most important
(14:34):
part is hearing the feedbackthat's coming from the citizens.
There was a citizen survey thatindicated that.
You know, first let me say thisduring the previous years we
were pretty high in the citizensurvey 90-some percent.
This last one, we fell back alittle bit.
Melissa Harmer (14:53):
That's the overall satisfaction rate.
Chief Wilson (14:54):
That's the overall satisfaction rate.
We pay attention to thosethings and in this last one it
was something to do with makesure being seen in the
neighborhoods and being seen inthe business district.
We're there.
We're just not there,apparently, when the citizens
see us or don't see us, butwe're in those areas all the
(15:18):
time.
However, you know we only haveso many per shift and in those
shifts the officers are going tobe going to the neighborhoods
based upon calls for service.
If there's calls for service,that's going to be going to the
neighborhoods based upon callsfor service.
If there's calls for service,that's going to take them away
from their normal patrolling.
Melissa Harmer (15:32):
Right.
So an increased visibility inthese areas are one of the goals
of the police department, andwe do that with increased
staffing.
Chief Wilson (15:43):
We do that with increased staffing.
I mean being visual, being seen, is a deterrent for crime.
If, if folks that are cominghere, thinking that they're
going to do a crime ofopportunity, drive around, look
for early or easy victims, thenwe will be.
(16:03):
If they see us out therepatrolling, that's, that's a,
that's a deterrent as well, bothday and night.
Melissa Harmer (16:10):
Right, right.
I wouldn't want to do somethingbad when there's a police
officer right there.
Chief Wilson (16:15):
Right.
And with that being said, Iwould like to talk a little bit
about Grandview, our neighboringpartners, meaning Belton,
Grandview.
You know, Raymore butts upagainst Kansas City, Lee's
Summit, Grandview, Belton.
We have a couple- we have someshops that that folks come into
(16:37):
town to shop at and it, you know, when they're here shopping
they may drive around.
Some of those folks that comeinto town may not be, may be
looking for an easy target downthe road, who knows?
But you know, Raymore, we havea population of about 25, 6 or a
little bit more than that.
Now Belton has 26,000 andsomething.
(17:02):
It's almost 27.
And then Grandview has a littlebit less than 25,000.
Well, Grandview has just patrolofficers.
Grandview has 70-plus.
I misspoke, it's not patrolofficers, it's certified peace
officers.
So that's 70-plus.
Belton has 50-plus certifiedpolice officers.
(17:25):
Right now we're sitting atabout 32.
And you know, we have 17 square, 17 point something square
miles, and then they both have14 point, you know, I think one
of them is 7, and then the otherone is like .5.
But they have 14 square milesand we have 17 square miles.
Melissa Harmer (17:44):
So we have more area to cover.
Chief Wilson (17:46):
More area to cover .
Area to cover, fewer policeofficers per resident per
resident and the nationalaverage is, you know, 2.2 per
thousand
Melissa Harmer (17:56):
Per thousand uh, I think it's closer to two and
a half per thousand actually,but we're at about 1.3.
Chief Wilson (18:03):
We're at 1.3 and so with this upcoming public
safety tax, that's for eightofficers.
That's to train, equip, whichmeans everything from sending
them to the police academy,future trainings.
For that, the only those eight.
It won't go towards anyexisting personnel and it's a
(18:23):
quarter of one percent and thosefunds are strictly for eight
additional officers right andthis is on the April 8th ballot
public safety sales tax.
Melissa Harmer (18:35):
It would create a public safety sales tax fund,
and so that is the only thingthat those funds would be used
for hiring, paying, equippingand training additional police
officers those eight additionalofficers and yes, our estimates
anticipate that we can fundeight
Chief Wilson (18:52):
and then so with eight, if you, if it is eight,
then we're still not near thenational average
Melissa Harmer (18:59):
well, if you kind of break it down to those
rotations, that's about twoextra officers per per rotation
per rotation or per officers perrotation.
Per rotation or per shift perrotation.
Chief Wilson (19:07):
Well, it would be shift, so minus, you know a
couple other movements here andthere with any of the community
outreach position, but anyway itwould still give us time.
When folks look at you know theblotter every week.
Hopefully folks out there arelooking at the blotter.
(19:28):
If not, you can have thatemailed to you.
Melissa Harmer (19:32):
You can go to Raymore.
com/ police and sign up forblotter, or go to our website
search bar on top, hit policeblotter and it'll show you the
latest.
Actually, you can see all ofour blotters for several years
and they come out every Monday.
Chief Wilson (19:46):
That's a good gauge of you know, with crime
and incidents it has its peaksand valleys.
So you know, this week folksmay be, you know, at the top of
the peak with some thefts orreports in a certain area, and
then the next week that may be,you know down and it's just good
information to know what'sgoing on in the community.
Melissa Harmer (20:06):
And also, you know, Raymore is one of the few
cities around us that does notalready have a dedicated public
safety sales tax fund.
Chief Wilson (20:15):
Correct.
Melissa Harmer (20:16):
And then, you know, if we add this one quarter
of one percent, our city salestax rates are still lower than
Belton's.
And yet we can have eight moreofficers, you know, increasing
their presence in residentialand commercial areas.
Chief Wilson (20:30):
So one of the things I think it happens is you
know when we're out takingreports and you know it takes an
officer out of service tofinish that call for service,
whether it be whatever kind ofreport, is they got to go back
and complete that report?
You know it's, it's not likesomething that's just done at
that moment and you know so whenthey're out of service that
takes an officer from frompatrolling the streets or being
(20:53):
seen.
You know, with the additionalfolks that just gives us more of
an opportunity to continuepatrolling and being seen and
being out in the, the businessdistricts and the neighborhoods
and still rotate folks in to dotheir paperwork, make those
reports that are really needed.
Melissa Harmer (21:13):
Sure, and so the whole goal is the safety of the
community.
Right, that's the top priority,that's.
Chief Wilson (21:19):
You know we want to be able to be proactive and
not reactive.
Once we become reactive, it'llbe just like what we see on TV
with some of those biggeragencies where you know they're
always blacked out.
We become reactive.
It'll be just like what we seeon TV with some of those bigger
agencies where you know they'realways blacked out.
You know it takes too long torespond to an incident in my
mind.
Melissa Harmer (21:35):
Tell me what, just if anyone doesn't know,
tell me what being blacked outmeans.
Chief Wilson (21:39):
Blacked out means that you know all their officers
are busy on calls and they'llget to you when they can.
Don't ever want to get to that,that position you know.
Fortunately, we do have goodrelationships with our
neighboring agencies, whether itbe Belton or Cass County, and
you know, need be they can comein and and help, or, you know,
oftentimes we go and help themas well.
(22:01):
So, but we want to be able todo it on our own and we want to
be able to be proactive about itand, quite frankly, the name of
the game is always displacingfolks that want to come in and
cause harm to our community andmake our community members
victims.
So we're going to displacethose folks and get them outside
of the city, we're going topush them to another
(22:22):
jurisdiction or we're going tocatch them in the act.
And in order to do that we needto stay proactive.
Melissa Harmer (22:29):
Thank you.
And what is this really goingto add to the price of what
you're purchasing at a Raymorestore?
It's going to add one cent ifyou're buying a $4 cup of coffee
.
If you can get a $4 cup ofcoffee anymore, it's going to
add one cent.
It's going to add 25 cents ifyou're spending a hundred
dollars at a Raymore store.
So it's it.
It's not a huge amount, but itagain, it could put eight
(22:52):
additional police officers intothe Raymore police department to
be able to serve us.
Chief Wilson (22:55):
Well, you know, I mentioned something earlier when
we were talking and I, you know, I firmly believe that our
community stores.
They bring in folks fromoutside of our community.
You know those folks are goingto be paying for sales tax as
well, you know, and with otherfolks coming into our community,
it's like they're going to helpsupport, you know, if this was
to pass, they would help supportour police department.
Melissa Harmer (23:18):
Sure, yep, anybody who shops at any Raymore
store is going to be payingthat and, you know.
If anyone thinks that RaymorePD doesn't have a lot going on,
that's not true, we know that,we know it.
Like you said, peaks andvalleys really busy times, times
that aren't crazy.
But if anyone has any doubt, Iwill say that I went on a police
(23:44):
ride along a few years ago.
I had been here working forseveral I'd interact with you a
lot, some of the policeofficers, but I really didn't
know what you guys did on aday-to-day basis.
The ride-along really opened myeyes to everything that our
officers do.
I had no clue, and we evenresponded to an accident at a
(24:05):
major intersection whichrequired many Raymore police
officers to direct traffic.
And it's just- if you have anydoubts about what our police
officers do on a day-to-daybasis or you have no idea, I
would suggest going on aride-along and you can request
to do that on our website.
Chief Wilson (24:22):
Absolutely, you can request that or even come
into the PD lobby and get a form.
The form can be filled out andleft, and then my community
outreach officer or myoperations commander will reach
out to you and schedule theride-along.
It could be the whole fourhours, it could be two hours, it
could be three hours.
Please come in and ride along.
You'll get to see what we do.
Melissa Harmer (24:43):
And that's just another one of those community
outreach programs that we haveso people can help understand
what the police do for thecommunity every day.
Chief Wilson (24:50):
That's right, absolutely.
Melissa Harmer (24:52):
Great.
Well, if someone wants to getin touch with you, tell them how
.
Chief Wilson (24:58):
Well, if they want to get in touch with me, they
can obviously call my office816-892-3036, or they can hit my
email at jwilson
Melissa Harmer (25:09):
And then we have a lot information, facts and
figures on the Public SafetySalex Tax at raymore.
com/ public safety.
If you want to learn more aboutwhat the police do, those house
watch programs and all of thoseother things, raymore.
com/ police.
Anything else you want to leaveus with?
Chief Wilson (25:26):
No, no, thanks for having me, and you know, the
last time we did this, you saidI talked too long, so I'll just
stop now.
Melissa Harmer (25:33):
Well, I do appreciate your time because I
know you're a busy guy, so thankyou so much, Chief.
Chief Wilson (25:45):
Thank you.
Welcome to Say More in Raymore, the City of
Raymore's official podcast.
I'm your host, Melissa Harmer,the Communications Director at
the City of Raymore.
In this series we're giving youan insider's look at the things
happening in your citygovernment, whether it's new
developments shaping thecommunity, upcoming events or
the latest news that impactseveryday life in Raymore.
We'll also introduce you to thepeople who work behind the
scenes, our dedicated City staffwho make it all happen.
(00:35):
So stay tuned, because we'rehere to help you get to know the
people, the projects and theprograms that make Raymore a
great place to live, work andvisit, one episode at a time.
In this episode we'll take acloser look at the Raymore
Police Department with PoliceChief Jim Wilson.
But first here are a fewupcoming dates to keep in mind.
Tuesday, april 8th is thegeneral municipal election.
Polls are open from 6 am to 7pm.
(00:57):
Raymore voters will vote oncity council members and a
public safety sales tax in theamount of one quarter of one
percent.
Saturday, April 19th is theannual Raymore Easter Festival
at Recreation Park, and thatstarts at 10 am.
If you're planning to attendwith your children, don't be
late, because the egg huntstarts right at 10 am and 15,000
eggs go really fast.
If you are an artist or knowone, the Raymore Arts Commission
(01:21):
is now accepting entries forits second annual Power of
Perspectives art competition.
Entries are accepted throughApril 14th and the awards
reception is open to everyone onFriday, April 25th at
Centerview, our event space at227 Municipal Circle.
The doors will open at 6 pm and, in addition to viewing an
exhibit of all of the art, we'llhave live entertainment,
(01:41):
complimentary refreshments, acash bar and, of course, the
awards.
Cash prizes will be awarded inthe categories of painting,
photography, drawing and asculpture/ multimedia/ other
category.
Learn more about thecompetition and the awards
reception at Raymore.
com/ pop, Raymore.
com/pop.
Now let's get to our guest,Raymore Police Chief Jim Wilson,
(02:02):
who has been with thedepartment for 32 years.
Welcome, Chief.
Chief Wilson (02:08):
Thank you for having me.
Good afternoon.
Melissa Harmer (02:16):
So tell me a little bit about your history
with the Raymore PoliceDepartment and how things have
changed since you've been here.
Chief Wilson (02:19):
So I started in Raymore in 1993.
It is now 2025, so obviouslythere's been some huge changes
within the community.
When I started it was about7,500, and now we're over 25,000
.
During my time working forRaymore, I have been in several
positions throughout my careerin assignments from detective,
(02:41):
patrol officer, captain, deputychief, chief, now chief.
Melissa Harmer (02:47):
When you first started with the city, you
weren't a patrol officer.
Tell me about what your firstgig was here.
Chief Wilson (02:56):
So my first assignment here, I was loaned
out to the highway patrol and Iworked on a drug task force.
And even when I came back fromthe drug task force after about
three years task force and evenwhen I came back from the drug
task force after about threeyears, four years, I represented
the city of Raymore as well asall the cities in nine counties
on the task force board
Melissa Harmer (03:13):
And you had long flowing hair
Chief Wilson (03:15):
I had long hair at that time.
Yes, anybody, most of thecommunity that know me know that
I don't have hair nowunfortunately, so
Melissa Harmer (03:23):
Must have been a sight to behold.
Chief Wilson (03:25):
Yes, you know, I remember those days very fondly.
Melissa Harmer (03:30):
Of course.
Tell me a little bit about theorganization of the police
department.
Chief Wilson (03:36):
So currently today , we have two divisions.
We have the support divisionand we have the operations
division.
Under the support division, wehave the operations division.
Under the support division, wehave the communications unit.
We have records and crimeanalysts as a unit of one.
We have property and evidence,which is a unit of one as well,
(03:58):
and we have animal control,which we have two animal control
officers.
The operations side currentlyhas patrol and investigations.
We have right now, I am allowed, 32 full-time employees,
post-certified employees, whichare officers.
(04:20):
So with 32 full-time policeofficers, certified police
officers.
In order to be a certifiedpolice officer, you go to an
academy, you get post certifiedand then you have to maintain
your certification throughadditional training every year,
(04:42):
and that training is broken downand mandated by the Missouri
Post.
Melissa Harmer (04:46):
Talk about some of the training that you do that
.
I know that CIT training wasn'tinitially required or taught at
the academy, but we did it here, so tell me a little bit about
that.
Chief Wilson (04:57):
Well, CIT back probably 2008, 2009, under the
position of captain, I startedsending all the officers to CIT
training to deal with criticalincidents with folks that are
having types of mental health orsomebody in crisis, and it
(05:18):
takes special training to learnhow to de-escalate those type of
situations with folks and wepretty much have every officer
certified in that, regardless ifthey're an expert in that
particular area.
It's still good to go to thosetypes of trainings to learn how
to de-escalate folks that are incrisis.
Melissa Harmer (05:40):
And, in case anybody doesn't know, CIT means
Crisis Intervention Team, andthose types of calls do seem to
be more prominent now than theyused to be.
And talk about ourinvestigations unit.
Chief Wilson (05:51):
Our investigations unit.
We have one detective sergeantand we have two investigators.
I have my community outreachofficer, who's also my SRO in
that room.
However, she is assigned to thepatrol operations captain.
The investigators are assignedto the detective sergeant.
I have all new uh folks in thatunit and including the
(06:16):
detective sergeant, soeverybody's under close training
, um, and we're moving rightalong.
They're learning by trial, byfire.
They have plenty of cases andtheir caseload and they carry
anywhere between 75 and 100cases that's a lot at one time
and just quickly.
Melissa Harmer (06:36):
SRO is school resource officer so that officer
that's okay.
She uh goes around to thedifferent elementary schools
within Raymore city limits.
Chief Wilson (06:43):
Yep, she, uh, she goes to to the different
elementary schools withinRaymore City Limits.
Yep, she goes to all theschools within the Ray- Pec
School District if needed, buther primary focus are all the
schools within Raymore CityLimits.
Melissa Harmer (06:54):
Great, so have we covered every area of the
department yet?
Chief Wilson (06:57):
No, I don't believe we have.
Melissa Harmer (06:58):
Okay, let's keep going.
Chief Wilson (06:59):
Okay, so we have patrol next under the operation
side patrol.
Melissa Harmer (07:04):
And I know we have four sergeants who
supervise 20 patrol officers.
How do those shifts work?
Chief Wilson (07:12):
So our patrol division is made up of one
sergeant and we try to have fourpatrolmen on a shift.
We're not quite there.
Some shifts have three and aswe have that many when one takes
off, that leaves a little bitof a void there we do have.
(07:33):
So we have two rotations.
Within those rotations are theshifts that I just mentioned.
So we'll have a day shift and anight shift, and then we also
have a split shift, whichbasically is a two-to-two car.
The two-to-two car comes onduty and helps handle the peak
times for schools getting out atthree in the afternoon.
(07:58):
We have folks coming home fromwork and then they're finding
things that are amiss or theyneed to report something, and
then we have a little bit of theovernight hours as well.
Melissa Harmer (08:08):
Okay, so we're covering it all 24-7, 365.
Chief Wilson (08:11):
Yep.
Melissa Harmer (08:12):
Anything else with our breakdown of our police
department that you want toshare.
Chief Wilson (08:17):
You know the community outreach.
We have a specific person thathas that title.
She's very busy with theschools.
So every officer, everycommander, we are all community
outreach officers.
We're all participating andhelping.
You know, right now we have theCitizens Academy.
(08:37):
It just started last Wednesdaynight.
This Wednesday will be nighttwo of the Citizens Academy and
you know we are pretty fortunate.
We have 19 citizens in thatacademy but they're all learning
what we do and how we do it.
My SRO is running that programoutside of her daily activities
(09:00):
with the schools.
Melissa Harmer (09:02):
All right, so tell me about some other ways
that you have a proactiveapproach to community outreach
and other programs that areoffered by the police department
.
Chief Wilson (09:11):
So the community partnership is one of the most
important partnerships withinpolice work.
I mean we have partnershipswith other law enforcement
agencies, other prosecutors, allthe Fed folks, but really our
biggest partner is our community.
When we're not out there, it'stheir eyes and ears that are
(09:37):
telling us what's going on andwe couldn't do our job without
them.
They're like the unspoken herofor the pd.
When they see something, theysay something, they call us.
So, with that being said, youknow we have the neighborhood
watch programs that we'll go outand assist with.
We have the, actually thecitizen academy that I just
mentioned.
We will have traffic radar signplacements based upon whatever
(09:59):
the community feels the needsmay be.
Like, if there's a neighborhoodthat feels that they're having
higher speed in theirneighborhoods, that they can
call us and we'll go put out asign or put out the radar
trailer to help put know, putout a visual aid to show the
folks look, slow down in thisarea and determine also if the
(10:21):
complaint is valid.
Then we also do shop with a copthe drug take back.
We have one coming up at theend of the month of April April
26th, Saturday, 10 am to 2 pm atRaymore PD and Price Chopper.
Melissa Harmer (10:36):
So that's unwanted, expired, unused
prescription medications.
Get them out of your cabinets.
Chief Wilson (10:43):
Get them out of the cabinet or wherever they are
the tubs I think a lot ofpeople use tubs these days, no
such thing as the cabinets butbring them up and either drop
them off at the PD or take themover to Price Chopper Vestibule
to the officer that will besitting in the vestibule taking
the prescription drugs as well.
Melissa Harmer (11:02):
And that's just for safe disposal, because it's
not really safe to throw them inthe trash.
It's not safe to flush them alot of times just because of
what's in the medications andthen keeping them in your house
can potentially lead to thewrong person accidentally
getting some of them or abuse.
So it's just a really good ideato safely dispose of them.
Chief Wilson (11:22):
I would agree.
Melissa Harmer (11:23):
What are some ways that our residents can keep
themselves safe and avoid whatI've heard you refer to as
crimes of opportunity?
Chief Wilson (11:33):
Well, you know, basically we're going to harden
the target, meaning, you know,with folks that are they're
going to go to communities wherethey feel like they can go and
commit the crime.
Crime of opportunity.
Meaning if you leave valuablesin your car, if you leave your
garage door open, if you youleave your house unlocked, folks
(11:58):
may come by at the wrong timeand break into your car,
especially if it's unlocked.
They don't have to break in,they just open the door.
We will get reports where folkssay, well, I'm sure I locked
the door.
Well, there's no broken glassand there's not keys.
These folks don't have keys tothe doors, so sometimes folks
forget to lock them and theykeep a lot of valuables in their
(12:22):
cars, whether it be computersor money.
What have you?
You know, I think, that we putout that information three and
four times a year, maybe evenmore than that.
When I come to you and say, hey, can you put out?
You know that that's a seems tobe a big problem.
Now, if you leave your garagedoor open, don't count on us
coming by.
But we often will catch thatwhen we're in the neighborhoods
(12:45):
and come and knock on your doorat 1: 30 or 2 o'clock in the
morning say, hey, your garagedoor is open, you might want to
close that
Melissa Harmer (12:52):
And I don't think I've heard of anyone being
upset that you've let them knowthat in the middle of the night
.
Chief Wilson (12:55):
No, they're usually pretty happy.
They are pretty happy aboutthat.
Melissa Harmer (12:59):
So remember the 9 pm routine is what we talk
about a lot in the summer,especially with now the weather
getting nicer and you're outdoing yard work and whatever.
So just try to remember tocheck, keep your garage door,
make sure your garage doors areclosed by nine yeah, by nine.
Chief Wilson (13:13):
If not nine, you know, by 9:05
Melissa Harmer (13:16):
Sure.
Chief Wilson (13:17):
And then a couple other other key things.
You know, if you're going toleave for an extended period of
time, make sure you shut yourwindows.
The spring's coming up, sopeople have a tendency to leave
their windows open.
It's mainly around the holidaytimes, however, if you drive
around the city and you seepeople that put out you know,
the 95-inch TV box or somethingof that nature, something that
(13:44):
tells somebody you havesomething nice in your residence
you might want to cut up thatbox, at least make it to where
no one can tell what it was.
Melissa Harmer (13:53):
That's good advice.
Talk to me now about your goalsfor the police department and
kind of typical day in the lifeof a police officer.
Chief Wilson (14:05):
So, with regard to the typical life, and you know
our goals for the policedepartment, our goals are simply
this (14:13):
you know we take a lot of pride on being very proactive
in our community, from me allthe way down to the officer that
we just hired last week.
You know that's a culture thatwe just have here in Raymore and
I think that, that being said,I think that the most important
(14:34):
part is hearing the feedbackthat's coming from the citizens.
There was a citizen survey thatindicated that.
You know, first let me say thisduring the previous years we
were pretty high in the citizensurvey 90-some percent.
This last one, we fell back alittle bit.
Melissa Harmer (14:53):
That's the overall satisfaction rate.
Chief Wilson (14:54):
That's the overall satisfaction rate.
We pay attention to thosethings and in this last one it
was something to do with makesure being seen in the
neighborhoods and being seen inthe business district.
We're there.
We're just not there,apparently, when the citizens
see us or don't see us, butwe're in those areas all the
(15:18):
time.
However, you know we only haveso many per shift and in those
shifts the officers are going tobe going to the neighborhoods
based upon calls for service.
If there's calls for service,that's going to be going to the
neighborhoods based upon callsfor service.
If there's calls for service,that's going to take them away
from their normal patrolling.
Melissa Harmer (15:32):
Right.
So an increased visibility inthese areas are one of the goals
of the police department, andwe do that with increased
staffing.
Chief Wilson (15:43):
We do that with increased staffing.
I mean being visual, being seen, is a deterrent for crime.
If, if folks that are cominghere, thinking that they're
going to do a crime ofopportunity, drive around, look
for early or easy victims, thenwe will be.
(16:03):
If they see us out therepatrolling, that's, that's a,
that's a deterrent as well, bothday and night.
Melissa Harmer (16:10):
Right, right.
I wouldn't want to do somethingbad when there's a police
officer right there.
Chief Wilson (16:15):
Right.
And with that being said, Iwould like to talk a little bit
about Grandview, our neighboringpartners, meaning Belton,
Grandview.
You know, Raymore butts upagainst Kansas City, Lee's
Summit, Grandview, Belton.
We have a couple- we have someshops that that folks come into
(16:37):
town to shop at and it, you know, when they're here shopping
they may drive around.
Some of those folks that comeinto town may not be, may be
looking for an easy target downthe road, who knows?
But you know, Raymore, we havea population of about 25, 6 or a
little bit more than that.
Now Belton has 26,000 andsomething.
(17:02):
It's almost 27.
And then Grandview has a littlebit less than 25,000.
Well, Grandview has just patrolofficers.
Grandview has 70-plus.
I misspoke, it's not patrolofficers, it's certified peace
officers.
So that's 70-plus.
Belton has 50-plus certifiedpolice officers.
(17:25):
Right now we're sitting atabout 32.
And you know, we have 17 square, 17 point something square
miles, and then they both have14 point, you know, I think one
of them is 7, and then the otherone is like .5.
But they have 14 square milesand we have 17 square miles.
Melissa Harmer (17:44):
So we have more area to cover.
Chief Wilson (17:46):
More area to cover .
Area to cover, fewer policeofficers per resident per
resident and the nationalaverage is, you know, 2.2 per
thousand
Melissa Harmer (17:56):
Per thousand uh, I think it's closer to two and
a half per thousand actually,but we're at about 1.3.
Chief Wilson (18:03):
We're at 1.3 and so with this upcoming public
safety tax, that's for eightofficers.
That's to train, equip, whichmeans everything from sending
them to the police academy,future trainings.
For that, the only those eight.
It won't go towards anyexisting personnel and it's a
(18:23):
quarter of one percent and thosefunds are strictly for eight
additional officers right andthis is on the April 8th ballot
public safety sales tax.
Melissa Harmer (18:35):
It would create a public safety sales tax fund,
and so that is the only thingthat those funds would be used
for hiring, paying, equippingand training additional police
officers those eight additionalofficers and yes, our estimates
anticipate that we can fundeight
Chief Wilson (18:52):
and then so with eight, if you, if it is eight,
then we're still not near thenational average
Melissa Harmer (18:59):
well, if you kind of break it down to those
rotations, that's about twoextra officers per per rotation
per rotation or per officers perrotation.
Per rotation or per shift perrotation.
Chief Wilson (19:07):
Well, it would be shift, so minus, you know a
couple other movements here andthere with any of the community
outreach position, but anyway itwould still give us time.
When folks look at you know theblotter every week.
Hopefully folks out there arelooking at the blotter.
(19:28):
If not, you can have thatemailed to you.
Melissa Harmer (19:32):
You can go to Raymore.
com/ police and sign up forblotter, or go to our website
search bar on top, hit policeblotter and it'll show you the
latest.
Actually, you can see all ofour blotters for several years
and they come out every Monday.
Chief Wilson (19:46):
That's a good gauge of you know, with crime
and incidents it has its peaksand valleys.
So you know, this week folksmay be, you know, at the top of
the peak with some thefts orreports in a certain area, and
then the next week that may be,you know down and it's just good
information to know what'sgoing on in the community.
Melissa Harmer (20:06):
And also, you know, Raymore is one of the few
cities around us that does notalready have a dedicated public
safety sales tax fund.
Chief Wilson (20:15):
Correct.
Melissa Harmer (20:16):
And then, you know, if we add this one quarter
of one percent, our city salestax rates are still lower than
Belton's.
And yet we can have eight moreofficers, you know, increasing
their presence in residentialand commercial areas.
Chief Wilson (20:30):
So one of the things I think it happens is you
know when we're out takingreports and you know it takes an
officer out of service tofinish that call for service,
whether it be whatever kind ofreport, is they got to go back
and complete that report?
You know it's, it's not likesomething that's just done at
that moment and you know so whenthey're out of service that
takes an officer from frompatrolling the streets or being
(20:53):
seen.
You know, with the additionalfolks that just gives us more of
an opportunity to continuepatrolling and being seen and
being out in the, the businessdistricts and the neighborhoods
and still rotate folks in to dotheir paperwork, make those
reports that are really needed.
Melissa Harmer (21:13):
Sure, and so the whole goal is the safety of the
community.
Right, that's the top priority,that's.
Chief Wilson (21:19):
You know we want to be able to be proactive and
not reactive.
Once we become reactive, it'llbe just like what we see on TV
with some of those biggeragencies where you know they're
always blacked out.
We become reactive.
It'll be just like what we seeon TV with some of those bigger
agencies where you know they'realways blacked out.
You know it takes too long torespond to an incident in my
mind.
Melissa Harmer (21:35):
Tell me what, just if anyone doesn't know,
tell me what being blacked outmeans.
Chief Wilson (21:39):
Blacked out means that you know all their officers
are busy on calls and they'llget to you when they can.
Don't ever want to get to that,that position you know.
Fortunately, we do have goodrelationships with our
neighboring agencies, whether itbe Belton or Cass County, and
you know, need be they can comein and and help, or, you know,
oftentimes we go and help themas well.
(22:01):
So, but we want to be able todo it on our own and we want to
be able to be proactive about itand, quite frankly, the name of
the game is always displacingfolks that want to come in and
cause harm to our community andmake our community members
victims.
So we're going to displacethose folks and get them outside
of the city, we're going topush them to another
(22:22):
jurisdiction or we're going tocatch them in the act.
And in order to do that we needto stay proactive.
Melissa Harmer (22:29):
Thank you.
And what is this really goingto add to the price of what
you're purchasing at a Raymorestore?
It's going to add one cent ifyou're buying a $4 cup of coffee
.
If you can get a $4 cup ofcoffee anymore, it's going to
add one cent.
It's going to add 25 cents ifyou're spending a hundred
dollars at a Raymore store.
So it's it.
It's not a huge amount, but itagain, it could put eight
(22:52):
additional police officers intothe Raymore police department to
be able to serve us.
Chief Wilson (22:55):
Well, you know, I mentioned something earlier when
we were talking and I, you know, I firmly believe that our
community stores.
They bring in folks fromoutside of our community.
You know those folks are goingto be paying for sales tax as
well, you know, and with otherfolks coming into our community,
it's like they're going to helpsupport, you know, if this was
to pass, they would help supportour police department.
Melissa Harmer (23:18):
Sure, yep, anybody who shops at any Raymore
store is going to be payingthat and, you know.
If anyone thinks that RaymorePD doesn't have a lot going on,
that's not true, we know that,we know it.
Like you said, peaks andvalleys really busy times, times
that aren't crazy.
But if anyone has any doubt, Iwill say that I went on a police
(23:44):
ride along a few years ago.
I had been here working forseveral I'd interact with you a
lot, some of the policeofficers, but I really didn't
know what you guys did on aday-to-day basis.
The ride-along really opened myeyes to everything that our
officers do.
I had no clue, and we evenresponded to an accident at a
(24:05):
major intersection whichrequired many Raymore police
officers to direct traffic.
And it's just- if you have anydoubts about what our police
officers do on a day-to-daybasis or you have no idea, I
would suggest going on aride-along and you can request
to do that on our website.
Chief Wilson (24:22):
Absolutely, you can request that or even come
into the PD lobby and get a form.
The form can be filled out andleft, and then my community
outreach officer or myoperations commander will reach
out to you and schedule theride-along.
It could be the whole fourhours, it could be two hours, it
could be three hours.
Please come in and ride along.
You'll get to see what we do.
Melissa Harmer (24:43):
And that's just another one of those community
outreach programs that we haveso people can help understand
what the police do for thecommunity every day.
Chief Wilson (24:50):
That's right, absolutely.
Melissa Harmer (24:52):
Great.
Well, if someone wants to getin touch with you, tell them how
.
Chief Wilson (24:58):
Well, if they want to get in touch with me, they
can obviously call my office816-892-3036, or they can hit my
email at jwilson
Melissa Harmer (25:09):
And then we have a lot information, facts and
figures on the Public SafetySalex Tax at raymore.
com/ public safety.
If you want to learn more aboutwhat the police do, those house
watch programs and all of thoseother things, raymore.
com/ police.
Anything else you want to leaveus with?
Chief Wilson (25:26):
No, no, thanks for having me, and you know, the
last time we did this, you saidI talked too long, so I'll just
stop now.
Melissa Harmer (25:33):
Well, I do appreciate your time because I
know you're a busy guy, so thankyou so much, Chief.
Chief Wilson (25:45):
Thank you.
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