Groups of unruly youths in Kansas City’s fashionable Country Club Plaza outdoor shopping district have effectively closed at least one indoor dining room and tormented other businesses and their customers on weekend evenings.

“Due to substantial safety risk and business disturbance caused by violent, habitual trespassers entering our Shack, our dining room and bathrooms will be closed from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm,” Shake Shack announced on a since-removed sign, according to the Kansas City Star. To-go orders will still be available at the door.

“There’s supposed to be a curfew,” Kenneth Johnson, a young shift manager at the nearby Cold Stone Creamery, told The Star.  “It’s like there’s no curfew at all.” Police, he said, “come, show their badge. The kids don’t even care.”

The problem has plagued the Plaza for years.

“In 2019,” The Star noted, “the Cinemark Palace at the Plaza movie theater closed down to make way for construction of a Nordstrom store, which never materialized. The theater’s closure, however, came on the heels of complaints about teens gathering there in the summer and causing disturbances.”

The Kansas City Police Department upped its presence at the Plaza in 2018 after youths were stomping on cars and causing fights, KSHB-41 reported at the time. KCPD social worker Gina English told the TV station she’d surveyed youths at the Plaza the previous summer.

“She talked to 108 kids, and 87 of them were dropped off without an adult,” the station reported. “The average age was 15, but English said she was shocked to see kids as young as nine. Only one of the 108 said he was there with family. More than half did not even go to school in Kansas City.”

“Kids are coming from Grandview, they’re coming from Belton. They’re coming from Independence, north of the river,” English told the station.

This, despite the fact that it’s illegal for unaccompanied minors to be out in an entertainment district after 9 p.m. from Memorial Day through the month of September. Under the curfew, first established in 2013, the minors can be held for parents to pick up, and the parents can be fined up to $500.

One law enforcement source who requested anonymity told The Heartlander that, in the past, early-summer police warnings – hundreds of them – and then pickups of any youths violating the curfew at the Plaza have markedly reduced violations.

“The word got out,” the source said.

English helped get the word out too, not just at the Plaza but also at schools and other institutions. Diversion-from-prosecution programs, complete with discussions of civics and civic responsibility, also helped stem the tide, the source said.

But with outdoor diners being beleaguered, closing doors isn’t going to fix the problem. Outside diners have even had food taken off their plates in the past, the source said.

Diversion and counseling may no longer be effective in reducing curfew violations and unruly behavior, the source said, noting that city officials may have to actually start convicting violators in court.

Plaza management issued this statement to The Star:

“Safety and security are the top priority at The Plaza. Unfortunately, the district’s issues aren’t unique. Today, shopping venues across the country, including those similar to the Plaza, have safety concerns that stem from a variety of complex and systemic issues.

“As for what’s in our immediate control, we want Plaza customers to know that we deploy a wide variety of safety and security tactics, both seen and unseen, to create the safest environment possible. This includes working hand-in-hand with the incredibly dedicated KCPD, using off-duty police officers on the security team, taking part in crisis exercises and working with Homeland Security to promote the ‘See Something Say Something’ campaign with Plaza and tenant employees. 

“We encourage anyone who has questions regarding recent incidents to contact local authorities and to express their concerns to Mayor Quinton Lucas.” 

The Heartlander asked City Manager Brian Platt what the city plans to do to solve the problem at the Plaza, and whether there is even any thought being given to strict enforcement of the curfew. We also reached out to the KCPD with that question.

“We do enforce curfew when applicable,” a KCPD spokesperson wrote in response.

The Heartlander’s law enforcement source said that, with so many far-left candidates winning seats Tuesday on the City Council – which has already tried and failed to defund police – an understaffed KCPD may not have the support it needs to help the situation.

“It’s going to go the other way,” the source said of the council.