FBI wants more jobs in Kansas City to target 'explosion of violent crime' in Midwest

Robert A. Cronkleton, The Kansas City Star on May 12, 2025

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Federal Bureau of Investigation is eyeing the possible relocation of about three dozen positions to Missouri as it looks to move more than 1,000 jobs out of Washington, D.C., into field offices across the country, FBI Director Kash Patel testified to Congress last week.

Patel said the move would help address an “explosion of violent crime” in the Midwest.

In all, the FBI might move approximately 33 positions to the Kansas City field office, two to Springfield and one each to Topeka, Wichita and Jefferson City, Patel said during a U.S. House appropriations subcommittee hearing Wednesday concerning his agency’s fiscal year 2026 budget request.

A spokesman for the FBI’s field office in Kansas City referred questions about the possible additional staffing to Patel’s testimony.

U.S. Rep. Mark Alford, a Missouri Republican, asked Patel why they were needed in Kansas City. Patel responded that the move is to address violent crime in the Midwest and the locations were chosen based on proportion of violent crime per capita in those regions.

“I don’t want to say Kansas City has an explosion itself, but Kansas City covers down a large area in Missouri and surrounding states that have an explosion of violent crime, and that’s why we’re sending them there,” Patel said.

During the U.S. Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Thursday, Patel said the way they set out on deciding where to move the positions was not done by “throwing darts on a map.” He said the FBI identified violent crime hot beds across America and then apportioned the FBI employees where the need is the greatest.

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, asked whether there will be an increase FBI participation in partnerships with local law enforcement as a result of the relocating positions to field offices.

Patel said it will be up to special agents in charge of the field offices to determine where the employees are embedded.

“A big part of the process is . . . commitment to state and local authorities that we’re not just sending a federal agent to do work alone, we’re sending them to do it with you,” Patel said.

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