What does peace mean? Asked at the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department’s 5th annual Peace Walk Saturday morning, a judge, a chief, a major, a county commissioner, and a pastor found a different meaning in the word.

The walk began at 5th and Washington Boulevard at 11 a.m. and ended at 5th and Parallel, where 25 walking teams joined police officers, sheriff’s deputies, and elected officials for lots of swag and giveaways, law enforcement vehicle displays, and free hot dogs and nachos.

The 2026 walk was dedicated to the memory of Officer Hunter Simoncic of KCKPD and Deputy Elijah Ming of the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Department, both of whom were killed last year in the line of duty. The event also marked the presentation of the first KCKPD Lifetime Peace Walk Award to longtime victim advocate LaDora Lattimore.

Peace as a community coming together

For Tony Martinez, district judge for Wyandotte County’s 29th Judicial District, peace was visible in the moment.

“I got kids here. I got older people, I got younger people. I’ve got the police, I’ve got the sheriff, I’ve got you. I’m here, my wife’s here. Everybody smiling in the sunshine,” Martinez said. “This is peace in our community. This is what we need all the time, every weekend.”

The judge said peace is also important personally as he does his job. He recalled a particularly difficult case from the past week where he reminded himself to take a deep breath before stepping back onto the bench.

“I’ll realize that the woman or the man’s in front of me is somebody’s son, somebody’s daughter, and I’ll have peace and be fair with whoever’s in front of me,” Martinez said.

Outside the courtroom, the judge said, the surest path to peace is investing time in young people. He pointed to youth-focused groups at the event, including the Kansas City, Kansas Police Athletic League, area boxing clubs, and the Lowriding 2 Success program, as the activities he sees pushing the community toward peace. Each one, he said, means “kids off the streets, kids doing good, kids not having to grow up and appear in front of me.”

That investment, he said, should outrank the usual civic arguments. “We can argue about taxes, we can talk about the Chiefs. We can do that all day. It gives us something to do, but in the end, we’ve got to take care of the kids.”

Peace as the absence of violence

KCKPD Chief Karl Oakman defined peace by what 5th Street no longer sounds like.

Oakman, who lived in Gateway Plaza Homes off 5th Street in his middle school years in the 1980s, said gunfire was common along the corridor even when he first arrived as chief in 2021. Now, he said, residents can walk and exercise on the same street without incident.

The numbers, Oakman told participants, back up the picture. Overall crime in KCK is down 23 percent from this time last year, and homicides have fallen 50 percent so far in 2026. The city closed 2025 with 24 homicides, and the year before that tied a city record low at 22.

For Oakman, the figures reflect a strategy that pairs enforcement with relationships. The chief said the focus is on “actually implementing things that work for our specific community.”

He said the department also wants residents to think differently about themselves.

“We have to stop looking down on ourselves,” said Oakman, a J.C. Harmon graduate who returned to lead his hometown department after a nearly 30-year career with the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department. “We’re just as good as any other community in this metro and that’s what I demand from my officers and that’s something that I demand from the community.”

Peace as respect

East Patrol Commander Maj. Richard Harris, whose division covers the urban core including downtown KCK, Strawberry Hill, and Quindaro, defined peace at the level of how people treat one another.

“Peace means treating everybody well, not being mean or evil or neglectful to one another, but treating everybody with the respect that everybody deserves,” Harris said.

Harris said the trend on crime extends beyond a single year. “We are on this very good downward trajectory in the number of crimes that we have every year,” Harris said.

He said his patrol officers and sergeants depend on residents to know where to focus, and that progress on violent crime, robberies, and drive-by shootings has come from that partnership.

He pointed to the cleanup of Jersey Creek, where he now sees joggers, and the return of youth baseball games at 13th and Parallel as visible signs that the area is changing. KCK, he said, is becoming “a place that people want to come live, that they can thrive at, and they can raise a family and have a successful life.”

Peace as zero

Unified Government Commissioner Andrew Kump (At-Large District 2) framed peace in numerical terms. He said the department’s 50 percent drop in homicides represents progress, but his goal is zero.

Kump said that systemic progress requires economic opportunity and criminal justice reforms that allow people who have been involved with the justice system to find well-paying work and build stable lives.

“We’ve got communities from all denominations, all backgrounds out here just marching for the same goal of ending violence in our community,” Kump said.

Kump walked the route after spending the morning at a citywide cleanup event in Rosedale, where he said he picked up trash with volunteers from several community groups from Rosedale, Argentine, Turner and Armourdale.

“I try to be as involved in the community as I can, so just being visible, being approachable,” Kump said of how he sees his role in promoting peace.

Peace as salvation

Rev. D.L. Lee, associate pastor at Dynamic Life Baptist Ministries at 19th Street and Central Avenue, located the source of peace outside the criminal justice system altogether.

“Peace means salvation and Jesus Christ. That’s the only way that we can have true peace,” Lee said.

The pastor said efforts to stop drugs and violence are valuable but address only what he sees as outward signs of a deeper condition.

“Those are only symptoms of sin and fallenness,” he said.

Lee said the deeper work begins with “salvation of an individual soul, one person at a time, or family by family.” He pointed to 2 Corinthians 5:17, which describes anyone in Christ as a new creation, and said even drug and alcohol addiction, or “someone that likes to rob banks,” changes when a person has “a different mindset and a new heart.”

“All those things change,” he said, “and that’s how we can have a better community.”

That work, the pastor said, happens “outside of the four walls” of the church, in outreach to people who “may have heard it and have not adhered to it at the moment.”

Peace as partnership

The walk concluded with Oakman presenting the first KCKPD Lifetime Peace Walk Award to LaDora Lattimore, founder of Friends of Yates and the agency’s CEO emeritus, who organized the group in 1979 and led it for 39 years before retiring in 2019.

Lattimore could not attend in person due to a health issue, Oakman told the crowd. She joined by speakerphone.

The chief said the award honors a person who has dedicated her career to victims of crime and to building partnerships with law enforcement.

“She started working with this organization in 1979 and led the organization to improve overall quality of life,” Oakman said.

Friends of Yates operates the only comprehensive battered women’s program in KCK and provides court, economic, health, education, and housing advocacy as wraparound services for survivors of domestic violence. Under Lattimore’s leadership, the agency grew from a single shelter into a multi-building, debt-free operation, including the Della Gill/Joyce H. Williams Center for survivors and their children. Desmond Lamb now serves as executive director.

“You didn’t come with a speech, you came with a commitment to close the gap between law enforcement and the people you serve, and to build initiatives that truly engage both sides,” she said.

She thanked the chief and his officers for partnering with Friends of Yates not only during emergencies but in prevention and outreach, and credited officers who have walked survivors and their families to the agency’s doors at all hours of the night.

“I accept this award on behalf of every survivor who found safety because of this partnership,” Lattimore said. “When community and police work as one, we can protect what matters most.”