As a defense attorney, Tracey Chappell hears her clients in surrounding counties actually lament they hadn’t been arrested in Jackson County instead – where the prosecutors are notoriously soft on crime.

“I practice law in various counties, from Platte County to Clay to Cass, Buchanan, Andrew. I’m everywhere,” she tells The Heartlander. “And when I’m defending individuals, they’re telling me, ‘If I had committed this crime in Jackson County, I would be off right now. I would be maybe on probation or something right now, and it wouldn’t be a problem.’ 

“But other counties are prosecuting. That’s why they don’t have the level of crime that we do.”

As the first female head prosecutor for the city of Blue Springs – and now a candidate for Jackson County chief prosecutor – Chappell plainly says the county’s criminal justice system is broken.

“You know, residents, they think that the police officers are the problem. And I’ve told them time and time again, the chief law enforcement officer, which is the Jackson County prosecutor, that is your leadership. And if your leadership is not prosecuting crime, everything falls from that.”

Chappell even saw the problem from her former prosecutor post in Blue Springs – when felony cases that should’ve been handled by outgoing Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker’s office landed on Chappell’s desk instead.

“We were getting so many felonies that came across our desk. I mean, it was astounding. And when I would ask the officers why are we getting these felonies, they would seriously tell me that the Jackson County Prosecutor’s office refused to prosecute those property crimes.  

“The police officers wanted to make those individual criminals responsible, so they started sending them to the Municipal Court. And it wasn’t just Blue Springs. They are sending these felonies that the prosecutor’s office will not prosecute to every policing jurisdiction – I mean, every municipality, such as Kansas City, Grain Valley, Grandview, Independence, Raytown, Lee’s Summit. 

“Every head municipal court prosecutor complains about the felonies that they’re receiving.”

Chappell argues the Jackson County prosecutor’s office’s failure to prosecute has led to growing crime even in areas of Kansas City where residents used to feel somewhat immune from it when she ran for prosecutor back in 2020, such as Waldo and Brookside.

Indeed, the city was rocked by the murder of Brookside restaurateur Shawn Brady Aug. 28, shot dead while trying to stop his car from being stolen.

“I remember telling [residents in 2020], because I could see where it was going, if we don’t get a handle on it, it’s going to spread. And at that time, no one was interested. But in 2022 is when the crime started getting bad in Brookside and Waldo, and now it’s just astronomical.

“And now everybody’s open to listening to anything, because they want the help. They want to feel safe. They want their families to be safe. They’re sick of their businesses being broken into.”

Residents there made that clear enough just days before Brady’s brazen broad-daylight murder, during a town hall involving Baker and other officials, Chappell says.

“All in all, everyone was doing a lot of finger-pointing when the residents and business owners of Brookside and Waldo were asking for help as it relates to the property crime. 

“They were literally begging for help. And the only thing the elected officials could do is just finger-point. Well, then a week and a half later is when the chef, Shaun Brady, was murdered in back of his restaurant.

“I mean, it was really sad, because those individuals were begging for help and the elected officials just kept pointing the finger at each other and just trying to assuage the crowd and just say, ‘Hey, that’s not my job,’ and somebody else would say, ‘Well, that’s not my job.’ 

“The people in that area didn’t want to know whose job it was. They didn’t care. They just wanted the job done.” 

The Nov. 5 election for Jackson County prosecutor, she says, “is a pivotal point, because people are now affected where they were not affected in the past.”

Though running for prosecutor as a Republican in a Democrat stronghold, Chappell notes that outside of Kansas City proper, Jackson Countians are more conservative.

And, besides, crime isn’t a partisan issue.

“What I’ve been experiencing in the Waldo and Brookside area is that people are sick and tired of the crime. They’re scared, they’re upset, and they don’t know what the next steps are. 

“So when I come along, it’s something fresh. It’s something, you know, invigorating, a person who they’re saying, ‘Hey, we can get behind this person because we know that they’re going to go back and establish law and order.’ …

“Because of the level of crime, people are more open to hearing what I have to say. And I can’t tell you the number of people, even during early voting in those areas, who have said ‘I am Democrat, I am going straight down that party ticket. But for you, I’m voting Republican.’”

As for those party labels, Chappell says they didn’t mean anything when she stood up for crime victims as Blue Springs prosecutor. “It is about public safety. That is exactly what we should be concerned about, not a label.”

Chappell maintains residents of every political persuasion who are hit by property crime should have more options than just “call your insurance company” – which she says police are often relegated to saying due to the lack of prosecutions in Jackson County.

“Not only are they victimized when they are the target of the crime, but they’re further victimized when the only solution that they hear is ‘call your insurance company,’ because insurance rates are going to start going up everywhere because of the crime.”

Chappell cautions that being tough on crime doesn’t mean mass incarceration. In fact, her website notes that as Blue Springs prosecutor, she “engineered the city’s first ever diversionary program designed to help first-time offenders avoid incarceration by offering them the tools they needed to rebuild their lives.”

Chappell has heard from chef Brady’s friends, still despairing over his murder and hoping desperately for a firmer hand from the criminal justice system in Jackson County.

“A lot of people will say that they were good friends with him, they knew him,” she says. “It’s one thing to experience property crimes, the car thefts and your business being broken into. That’s one thing. But I think people were completely shaken up when someone was murdered. I mean, that just takes it to a whole different level. 

“There are a lot of his friends that were also business owners that have talked to me and just said, ‘Hey, where do we go from here? What are the next steps?’ Because, I mean, they’re afraid. And that could very well be something that happens to them if we are not in a position to actually deal with these criminals as they ravage through the communities. 

“I don’t think at this point the current administration has been tough enough to really deal with these criminals. And criminals know. They know. Trust me.”

Maybe because she’s heard it first hand – from her own clients.