A small camera along the side of the road led to some big questions from a Kansas City, Kansas, resident. What information do automated license plate readers collect? Who can search or share that information? How long is it stored? And what oversight exists when local police officers use these cameras? Those questions led a […]
Community Engagement
Posted inCommunity Engagement
Closed stores, cracked sidewalks & viral restaurants: What Documenters see in KC neighborhoods
On the surface, The Beacon’s Documenters program is straightforward: Train and pay residents to cover municipal meetings. This cadre of workers helps The Beacon inform the public and increase government accountability. Yet on a deeper level, being a Documenter also means paying attention to the world around you, noticing details others might miss and investigating […]
Posted inBehind the Beacon
Kansas City readers want us to follow the money
August feedback shows readers are looking beyond announcements and votes. They want to know who pays, who benefits and whether public promises are kept.
Posted inBehind the Beacon
Event recap: Understanding the Kansas City budget process
On June 3, The Beacon gathered community members at the Mid-Continent Public Library’s Blue Ridge Branch in south Kansas City for a conversation about one of the most important civic documents shaping life in our region: the Kansas City budget. Budgets can be overwhelming. They’re often hundreds of pages long, packed with technical language and […]
Posted inBehind the Beacon
From notes to news: How Documenters inform The Beacon’s reporting
When The Beacon launched Kansas City Documenters late last year, the goal was to fill the gap in consistent, accessible information about what happens in public meetings, and to use Documenters’ notes to inform our reporting. Since then, our reporters have pursued a number of stories inspired by Documenters’ meeting notes. One recent example is […]
Posted inBehind the Beacon
When the story lands in your backyard
At The Beacon, we often say our reporting starts where the community is talking. But this spring, our reporting started at a public meeting and ended up in Dottie’s backyard. For 55 years, Dottie has grown food like peppers, sweet potatoes and okra in the same plot of soil behind her home in Kansas City, Kansas. […]
Posted inBehind the Beacon
Kansas City, what World Cup stories should we cover?
We’re ramping up our reporting around the World Cup in Kansas City
Posted inBehind the Beacon
Kansas City’s first Documenters step up to build a people-powered public record
The Beacon has already trained 59 residents to take notes at public meetings and support regional newsrooms as part of the newly launched Kansas City Documenters program.
Posted inBehind the Beacon
Slow service, missing mail: Beacon panel highlights experiences with USPS changes in Missouri
The Beacon heard from a senior fellow and co-director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and the president of the Missouri Farm Bureau about USPS changes in Missouri.
Posted inBehind the Beacon
What The Beacon heard at the KCKPS Board Candidate Forum
The Beacon is charting a path that not only incorporates community voice and how that shapes our reporting but also holding people in power accountable and engaging with people that way through civics. When Edgar Palacios, president and CEO of The Latinx Education Collaborative (LEC) and Revolución Educativa (RevEd), shared that they were hosting a […]