By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
There is the perception that crime has increased in St. Joseph. Then, there is reality.
Buchanan County Prosecutor Ron Holliday says there is little evidence to back the premise that crime is increasing in St. Joseph. But Holliday acknowledges St. Joseph has seen an increase in violent crime.
“There has been an increase in gun-related violence,” Holliday tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post in an interview. “2017, I believe, there were eight murders; 2018, five murders. There has been an increase in gun-related crime.”
Holliday says nearly all the violent crime the city has seen the past few years, including murders, is related to the drug trade. Statistics released by the St. Joseph Police Department indicate a drop in crime, overall. The crime statistics compiled from 2021 indicate robberies and burglaries dropped off dramatically. Violent crime, though, rose.
This is the second of a two-part series.
Holliday says the prosecutor’s office has only a limited role in fighting crime. He says that rests mostly on the shoulders of the men and women who serve in law enforcement, St. Joseph police officers and Buchanan County deputies.
That has become increasingly difficult, according to Holliday.
“One of my disappointments, if you want to call it a disappointment, has been the gradual decline in the number of law enforcement officers that we have,” Holliday says.
Holliday says there aren’t as many life-long veteran detectives on the St. Joseph police force.
“I’ve seen a general decline in the amount of law enforcement that we have and the experience we have in the police department,” Holliday says.
That is most evident in the drop in what Holliday calls self-initiated arrests, because officers simply don’t have the time.
Holliday served as a police officer in Overland Park, Kansas before deciding to go to law school at the University of Missouri. He worked as an assistant prosecutor for Jackson County and served as Andrew County Prosecuting Attorney before coming to the Buchanan County Prosecutor’s Office, first as an assistant, then as prosecutor.
Holliday is hopeful moves by the city and voter-approval of a police pay plan will help St. Joseph fill vacancies in its police force and, perhaps, lure veteran officers back to the city. St. Joseph voters approved a sales tax increase to fund a police pay plan. The St. Joseph Police Department reports more than 20 vacancies in a police force authorized for 138 commissioned officers.
High-profile police abuse cases have undermined respect for officers in general, according to Holliday, who says he has seen a decline in respect for the legal system as a whole.
Holliday says there has always been rogue cops, but social media makes it seem that the problem is rampant.
“If there’s a police officer in Daytona Beach, Florida that did something very bad yesterday, we all know about it within 24 hours,” Holliday says. “What is not told are the thousands and thousands and thousands of good things that law enforcement officers do daily. I think that’s part of the fallout from our 24-hour news cycle that we have now and social media.”
Holliday is stepping down as Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney. He will continue to practice law in a limited capacity. Voters elected Assistant Prosecutor Michelle Davidson prosecutor in November. Davidson was Holliday’s first hire as prosecutor and believes though she will have to cope with personnel changes in the office, she will do a good job.