Mission Expansion: Aiding With Violent Crimes

Drug Task Force Following SuspectThe Jackson County Drug Task Force can track suspects and help police departments set up arrests—often without the suspects ever knowing the Task Force detectives were involved.

Drug Task Force Using Unique Skills & Resources

To Help Police Located & Apprehend Suspects

THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 2025

The job being well done—no high-speed pursuit or any shots fired—made Dan Cummings smile. “When it goes smoothly like that, they are arrested without ever knowing we were there.” 

The “they” are persons of interest Eastern Jackson County police departments have cause to suspect committed violent crimes. The “we” are the Jackson County Drug Task Force detectives whom Cummings leads and who utilize their specialized skills to assist the police in these investigations.

“Our focus is not solely on drugs,” stated Cummings, the Drug Task Force’s Officer-In-Charge since 2010. “We concentrate on violent crime, too, whether it is drug-related or not.”

‘One Of Things We Do Best’

The Task Force conducts several undercover investigations in pursuit of drug dealers—in often complex cases involving federal authorities trying to disrupt trafficking networks that cross state lines and also international borders. That means these detectives must limit being more directly involved in gathering evidence in some homicides or other violent crimes. 

“The fewer people who know my guys are law enforcement the better,” pointed out Cummings, who remains notoriously camera-shy, himself, though he has not worked covertly for several years. “We can’t be knocking on doors and flashing badges to ask questions in a murder case, for example, because that could compromise our undercover work.

“What we can do to help our police departments is one of the things we do best—surveillance.”

The Task Force has the resources—manpower and unmarked cars—plus years of experience to keep a close watch on suspects, while the local police continue gathering evidence.

“Smaller police departments don’t have the assets the Task Force does,” Blue Springs Police Chief Bob Muenz said. “If needed, the Task Force can set up around-the-clock surveillance. They can even conduct an undercover operation to contact a suspect and draw them out.”

Firearms & IEDs

Muenz chairs the Task Force’s Executive Board that includes the police chiefs from Buckner, Grain Valley, Grandview, Greenwood, Independence, Lake Lotawana, Lee’s Summit, Lone Jack, Oak Grove, Raytown and Sugar Creek, as well as Jackson County Sheriff Daryl Forté. COMBAT provides more than 90% of the funding for Task Force operations.

“There is usually a nexus between violence and drugs in our Eastern Jackson County communities,” Muenz continued. “We’ve needed the Task Force to be adaptable, and they have been. The emphasis is always on reducing violence. The Task Force can assist our departments with everything from burglaries to car thefts because it seems more and more these crimes involve someone pulling a gun. There’s an element or threat of violence in so many of these cases.

“The Task Force has got experience dealing with violence because every drug investigation they’ve had in the last several years seems to also involve gun trafficking or human trafficking or both.”

As an example, Muenz and Cummings each cited the Task Force’s recent search of a home in Kansas City’s Northeast neighborhood—as part of an investigation that originated with a drug-dealing complaint in Oak Grove. In addition to nearly 500 counterfeit pills and small amount of fentanyl, detectives confiscated 11 firearms and 17 IEDs (i.e. improvised explosive devices).

“That’s a case that started with a citizen complaint in Oak Grove, but the subject moved on,” Cummings said. “We relocated him in Independence and then on to Kansas City. That’s something the Task Force can do without confusion because when you have someone crossing jurisdictions it can get to be a cluster for each police department trying to do an investigation.

“What we’re still not clear about is what the intended use of these IEDs might have been.”

Muenz described the IEDs as “essentially dynamite.” 

“We’ve had people blow up their houses with homemade fireworks,” he said. “These IEDs weren’t fireworks. Why were they made? The fact they were made shows the level of violence some people are capable of.”

‘Just Drive On By’

The arsenal a person of interest might stockpile has police looking to minimize the risks of “barricade situations,” according to Cummings. Although he could not discuss specific cases due to pending litigation, he described how the Task Force has located suspects and surveilled them until the police can pick an opportune time to close in for an arrest, without having to go through the door to a house or an apartment, not knowing what weapons might be inside.

“We can trail them wherever they go,” Cummings said. “We use technology, but with these violent suspects we’ll use multiple vehicles to always have eyes on them. We might have two behind them, get at least one out front of them, with more waiting at key intersections.”

Cummings wants any Task Force unmarked vehicle to blend in—be just another car or truck on the road: “We were on this suspect and coordinated with the police to set up the perfect location to pull him over. What he never knew was beside the two patrols car were our vehicles that already had him boxed him in. 

“We were literally right behind the suspect and then just drove past him as he was being handcuffed. My guys were just like everyone else in traffic being waved to go around by a police officer. Like everybody else, my guys were rubbernecking to see what was going on—like they had nothing to do with it.”

And that’s when Cummings smiled.


Drug Task Force Challenge Coins

‘It’s What We Do’

Challenge coins became popular in the military during 1950s and ’60s. Service members could prove—when challenged—they were in a certain unit by presenting the medallion featuring that unit’s emblem. The tradition of designing and distributing these customized coins soon spread to law enforcement agencies.

When having coins made for the Jackson County Drug Task Force, Officer-In-Charge Dan Cummings wanted to do more than include the Task Force’s shield. COMBAT needed to be recognized for the vital funding it provides the Task Force. Without it, the Task Force likely would have ceased operations more than three decades ago.

To “personalize” the mementos, Cummings had etched on the edge what he believes is a simple, yet inspiring motto for those who risk their lives to make others safe: “IT’S WHAT WE DO.”

Those four words resonated with Cummings because that’s how his father explained his obligation as an Independence firefighter—except he never actually heard his father say much about his dangerous work.

“My cousin Gary couldn’t make it to dad’s funeral in 2013 but emailed me a story he wanted to be read at the services,” Cummings recalled. “There was a fire at a day care center—this had to be back in the early ’80s—and my dad was one of the first responders on the scene. He rushed in and started pulling kids out. The only reason my cousin knew anything about this is because one of the kids was his daughter. 

“And the first I ever heard this story was in this e-mail. Gary wrote that when he tried to thank Dad, all Dad said was, ‘It’s what we do.’ Then Dad walked away.”

But that memory, alone, wasn’t what inspired Cummings’ coin design: “I went to compliment a couple of our guys for doing a good job surveilling this person. They just shrugged and said, ‘It’s what we do.’ I was taken back—even had to go sit down and regroup a little. It was emotional.

“I had never told anybody at the Task Force that story about my dad. That’s when I decided those words needed to be on our coin.”