Business owners blast ‘weakened leadership' as blue city ranks among most dangerous in US

Fox News

02-06-2025

Business owners in Kansas City, Missouri, are fed up with the city's response to a string of crimes downtown, with one person saying they've had to "take matters into our own hands."
Kansas City was named the eighth-most dangerous city in the country in 2024 based on murder and property crime rates per 100,000 people, according to U.S. News and World Report. The city ranks twentieth on the outlet's list for 2025.
So far in 2025, there have been 61 homicides, versus 52 at this point in 2024, the Kansas City Police Department said. Between 2019 and 2023, property crimes in Kansas City spiked by 31%, according to KCUR. Homicides in Kansas City are lower than they were in 2023, when the city saw its deadliest year with 182.
Andrew Cameron, founder of Donutology, told Fox News Digital in an interview that it feels like crime in Kansas City is "at an all-time high as far as we're concerned."
"We do see some weakened leadership within the city, whether it be bureaucracy saying their hands are tied because the state controls the police or the prosecution declining to press charges just because there are so many instances and the police are understaffed," he said.
Cameron said there have been two incidents over the past year when Donutology locations were either vandalized or robbed.
"We've experienced multiple break-ins of our store. Sometimes they will take items inside the store. In our Trolley locations, they took our safe with cash in it. Just a few months later, we were broken into at our Westport location, where they just decided to kick the door in and not take anything," Cameron said.
In video provided to Fox News Digital, two men are seen breaking into a Donutology store and leaving with a safe.
In another incident at a separate Donutology location in Kansas City, a man is seen repeatedly throwing objects at the windows. Cameron told Fox News Digital he filed a police report on both incidents but didn't hear anything back.
He said the city has offered money to help repair damage, but they don't cover anything taken from the store.
"The city has also offered money to fix any vandalism, but their program doesn't cover the actual contents that were taken from the business. They're hoping insurance will cover it, but a lot of us small businesses have high deductibles, and it's almost – we're still out a lot of money. And when we're selling doughnuts at a couple dollars each, when you lose thousands of dollars, that's a lot of doughnuts to make up and a lot of customers. It really hurt us and set us back," Cameron said.
Personal injury attorney Suzanne Hale-Robinson told Fox News Digital she has seen an exponential increase in vehicle break-ins in the past six to nine months. On one occasion, Hale-Robinson said someone squatted in an office located in her building.
"One time, the floor above us had left their door unlocked over a weekend and somebody just had a nice, like, staycation in their office and then left with a couple laptops. So that's been like the break-ins in our building. Aside from that, we have a parking lot to the rear of our building and, yeah, luckily, my car, knock on wood, has not been broken into. I try not to leave anything in there, but you know probably 10 to 15 vehicles have been broken into," Hale-Robinson said.
She said it's frustrating when police don't show up after a break-in, adding that her law firm has had to hire private security.
"Initially, over the winter, we paid personally for private security to come because we couldn't get a response from the city. One thing that has been frustrating is the lack of them sending anybody out when there's an issue. So when we have a break-in, there's no police presence at all. We're being asked to go down to the station to make a report. And so that creates, I think, an inherent non-deterrent for criminals because there's no fear of immediate police reaction," Hale-Robinson said.
Hale-Robinson said that while she recognizes there should be a better law enforcement response, the city needs to do more to address homelessness.
"I do think there's blame that should be placed ... on the Kansas City government and how we're handling it and not just a focus on these individuals who, a lot of times, are houseless people that are [committing] crimes of desperation that is then fueled by the city's inability to help," she said.
In an effort to fight property crime, Democrat Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas put forward a $1 million proposal in January to increase off-duty law enforcement presence in areas of the city with higher crime, according to KMBC.
Fox News Digital reached out to Lucas for comment.