Kansas City, Kansas- A citizen activist is helping locals in Kansas City jumpstart criminal investigations of 32 sexually oriented businesses.

Phillip Cosby, executive director of the Kansas City chapter of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, cried “enough is enough” when a pornography outlet moved into his Abilene, Kan., neighborhood four years ago. He quickly learned how to rally public outrage against the store.

“Which in turn led Wichita, Topeka, Ellsworth, other communities to do the same – call for grand juries, which indicted on promotion of obscenity charges,” Crosby told Family News in Focus.

More than 100 local churches have joined his efforts.

“When we explained to people that we wanted to call a grand jury that would try to look into this and apply and see that the laws were enforced, they were very cooperative,” said the Rev. Michael Mullen, whose congregation at St. Patrick’s Church in Kansas City gathered more than 400 signatures.

Daniel Weiss, senior analyst of media and sexuality for Focus on the Family Action, praised the effort:

“If anything, it shows that people can take a stand and they can achieve results – positive results in their own communities. They can clean up their own communities.”