Local law enforcement sheds light on drug-related crimes: trends, prevention and education

ST. JOSEPH, Mo (News-Press NOW)-- Local law enforcement has amped up its resources to decrease the amount of drugs and crime throughout the community, as it continues its battle.

Buchanan County Drug Strike Force Captain Shawn Collie said not every crime is drug-related, but a majority of crimes the Force deals with have a drug nexus.

"That's one of the bigger things we try to explain to people... Drug abuse is just kind of the beginning of the problem," Collie said. "When you look at a lot of the crimes we see, drugs are usually the kind of, root of all evil."

Collie mentioned marijuana can be viewed as a "harmless drug," but has seen crimes like theft, robberies and home invasions have ties to marijuana or money associated with the drug.

The Strike Force sees more drugs like: Fentanyl, Methamphetamine, Cocaine, Xylazine and Kratom.

"A lot of the stuff we deal with every day on the drug abuse or the distribution, it's all parts of town," Collie said. "Whether it's the poorest of the poor or in the richest of the rich, it affects everybody."

This stands true with the St. Joseph Police Department.

"The range is very wide, very broad... We want to make sure we have a good presence is in all of our areas," SJPD Sgt. Richard McGregory said.

Crime statistics from the city's crime analysis page indicate city-wide crime saw a slight increase in 2024, compared to 2023.

These statistics consist of crimes like murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, arson, burglary, theft and motor vehicle theft.

The report states that in 2023, exactly 3,101 crimes of that variety were committed, while in 2024, around 3,198 crimes were committed.

One resident, uses cameras as a preventative measure to combat theft. Lacy Mcguire is a St. Joseph native and she said she feels 'left in the dark' after recent changes to the scanner.

"I felt more safe and aware of what was going on when we had the scanner," Mcguire said. "I feel that now there is no scanner, I feel left in the dark."

One way SJPD is working to combat all types of crime is with mobile camera trailers set up around the city.

"We've just deployed those to try and make the city safer, try to monitor those kinds of areas where crime is being committed," Sgt. McGregory said. "If there is something that does arise... we can check the cameras and try to get information and getting an actual investigative start from there."

Statistics provided by Sgt. McGregory in an email shows 290 drug offenses have occurred in 2025 through September.

When dealing with drug-related crimes, he said their main protocol is safety.

"We want to make sure we that we're handling any type of drug... properly," Sgt. McGregory said. "Proper personal protective equipment, gloves, things of that nature, making sure that we're not exposing ourselves."

Sgt. McGregory said the age range they usually see ranges from 12 years old to 40 years old. For Collie, the ages range from 15-year-olds to early 20s involved with drugs, but they see late 20s into the early 40s distributing the drugs.

Throughout Buchanan County, the Drug Strike Force made 402 arrests in 2022, while in 2023, it made 323 arrests. This, while more than doubling the amount of school programs.

In 2022, the Strike Force was involved with 11 schools; the following year, the number increased to 28. In a statement report, emailed to News-Press NOW, "The Drug Strike Force participated in 14 school programs with almost 1425 students in overall attendance."

The emailed report also said in 2024, "Strike Force Investigators made 286 arrests of persons with a variety of 535 charges."

"People thought that we were coming down too hard on drug addicts, and we kind of refocused just on the dealers and mainly dealing with the dealers," Collie said. "But now what we're seeing is a community who wants us to try to address the addicts before they overdose or before they get to do a bigger crime."

Looking ahead, Collie said they are continuing to look at both east and west coasts to figure out how the trends there will affect Buchanan County, as well as building community connections and trust.

"We've really concentrated on education and prevention," Collie said. "On the other side, we really try to do more with warrants, operation relentless pursuit through the state has went into effect, which for us we've always tried to work with warrants, but drug enforcement was primary. What we're finding is a lot of times if we focus on warrants, we're going to take the drugs off the streets."

SJPD said more crime statistics for 2025 are expected to come out at a later point.