By MATT PIKE
The St. Joseph Police Department is joining other law enforcement agencies around the area as they prepare for an influx of visitors next month during the 2026 World Cup.
St. Joseph Police Chief Paul Luster says preparations have actually been being made for the big event for the last two years.
"We started talking about it, meeting about it, planning about it, around it, about two years ago, and that's involved a lot of time," Luster says on the KFEQmunnity show. "The guys were just down in Kansas City yesterday (Tuesday) at a big more regional meeting going over things, so it's been a lot of hard work, we feel that we're ready."
Luster says he's also worked alongside Buchanan County Sheriff Bill Puett to ensure that law enforcement has adequate personnel on the streets and is visible to the public with an influx of visitors.
"We're expecting our hotels to all be sold out, and all of our short-term rentals, the Air BnB's, VRBO's things like that, will all be sold out," Luster explains. "So, we're expecting a large influx of visitors in our community, which is great for us, it's great for St. Joe to have that, and we want to make sure everyone is safe during those times."
Luster says the expected influx of visitors comes from an analogy heard in the planning meetings.
"There's six home matches if you will in Kansas City, or six Kansas City matches, and basically the analogy is that's like having the Super Bowl in your city six times over a five-week period, that's huge," Luster says. "So, we've never had the Super Bowl in Kansas City, but I remember even when I worked in Kansas City, even planning for the Super Bowl parade is just a huge undertaking to do that, so planning on we're going to have a Super Bowl type event six times over a five week period is a tremendous undertaking."
Luster says around a half million to a million visitors are expected in the area and says he's even heard of hotels being booked clear out to the Lake of the Ozarks around the time of the World Cup.
With an influx of visitors, especially during the summer travel period, Luster advises patience while out traveling on the roads with more people traveling back and forth between summer vacations and people traveling for the World Cup.
Interview
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.