Kansas City has a new police chief.

Yesterday, Deputy Chief Samuel F- Breshears was named chief of the department, after serving 30 years on the force.

County Administrator Dennis Hays says Breshears was chosen from more than 40 applicants in a nationwide search. He'll replace Ron Miller, who retired in late June before being named last month as police chief in Topeka.

Breshears takes over at a time when the city is seeing a rise in violent crime. Last year, overall violent crime in Kansas City rose 15 percent. As of July, reported violent crimes for the first six months of this year rose nearly 12 percent.

Breshears says the department will start with enforcement efforts that focus on quality-of-life issues to see if they can take care of some street-level problems, including drugs, prostitution and robberies.