Funding falls through for KCPD’s cold-case sex-crimes squad

It was big news last May when police took Bernard Jackson into custody and charged him in four rape cases more than two decades old. No one has ever officially said that Jackson was being charged as the “Waldo Rapist” — and who knows if those cases will ever be linked to anyone? But as a Waldo resident, I can tell you that people were willing to assume it was Jackson and allow themselves to feel relieved.

Either way, Jackson’s alleged crimes were what police call “cold cases”: old crimes that remain unsolved and are not under current investigation, for those of you who aren’t bedridden and watching nonstop police procedurals. The KCPD has a cold-case squad specifically dedicated to sex crimes. Except now, it looks like that squad is about to be the victim of a tight budget.