2025 Blue KC Answering the Call Honoree Michelle Hon
Small-Town Girl is Making a Big Impact in KC
Michelle Hon grew up in Edgerton, MO, a town of 400 people in Platte County. There were five towns bused together to form one school district, and there were still only 36 people in her graduating class.
So it’s fair to call her a “small-town girl.”
Hon was adopted at age 4 by a retired Navy officer. She and her dad watched “every cop show on television.” That, and her dad’s 30 years in the military inspired her to a career in public service.
She’s now in her 26th year with the Kansas City Missouri Police Department. Michelle currently serves as a major in charge of the North Patrol Division of the KCPD. Through the years, she’s served in five of the six divisions, with only the South Patrol Division still on her to-do list.
Her resume is impressive. She’s worked everything from patrol to violent crimes to child sex crimes to the assault squad and eventually homicide. Michelle also had a stint with the Metro Case Squad, which handles larger cases for departments who don’t have the experience or personnel.
She taught leadership at the police academy, worked as a sergeant with the metro patrol, wrote departmental policies and procedures, ran the Shoal Creek Division evening shift and worked for the information management unit. From there she went to internal affairs and eventually got promoted to major. She’s been with the north patrol division for just over a year.
Her favorite role was working in child sex crimes, because, unlike many other crimes, if you can remove the predator from their lives, those children have a greater chance of not having a repeat of that type of victimization in their life.
But, as you might expect, that division also leaves the deepest scars for a police officer.
“I reached a point in year 17 where I was starting to manifest what I now know are typical signs of cumulative trauma,” she said. “I had told myself that PTSD was something that happened with veterans who were shipped off to war. I was ignorant to the fact that law enforcement personnel can sometimes die the death of 1000 paper cuts.”
Michelle came to the conclusion that she needed help, so she signed up for The Battle Within, which is an organization that helps veterans and first responders like Hon cope with the sometimes-hidden trauma of their careers.
“Going through that program, with five days of self-care, and getting educated about the physical and emotional effects of trauma, was a life-changing experience for me.”
She has gone back as a program mentor for the last seven years and now advocates for all the officers under her command to deal with those hidden stresses. Coming from a major, it removes the stigma of needing help.
“I believe that taking care of themselves is worth it,” she said. “I believe it’s more important than answering calls for service.
“There are two types of sick, and we typically think only about being physically sick. But it’s the ‘heart sick’ that gets the law enforcement officer. Sending them to get help is huge.
“When they come back, I want them to be happy. I want them to reconnect with their old, playful, creative, fun selves.”
Because of her lifetime of work, Hon is the September recipient of the “Blue KC Answering the Call” award, sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City and benefitting The Battle Within.
She recognizes that vulnerability is the key.
“I really want to be an open book,” she said. “I want my officers to understand that it’s a matter of when and not if. I’ve been there, and I get it. I just want you to go and take care of yourself. You don’t have to be me. You don’t have to wait 17 years to take care of it.”
And it doesn’t matter whether you’re from the heart of the city or a small town.
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