CPD, STAARR to hold community meetings next week to discuss crime, safety in Columbia
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Columbia Police Department and Stronger Together Aspiring and Achieving Relevant Relationships are set to hold separate community meetings to discuss crime trends and community violence in Columbia next week.
The Columbia Police Department's meetings were initially set for May 10 and 11, but were rescheduled for Monday and Thursday, June 29. CPD cited a conflicting meeting time with the Columbia Citizens Police Review Board.
The meeting on the Monday will cover crime trends and safety issues in the North Districts of Columbia. The meeting will be 6-7:30 p.m. in the Community Room of the Molly Thomas Bowden Neighborhood Policing Center.
Representatives of CPD's Patrol and Criminal Investigation bureaus will present information and answer questions regarding community-based crime trends and safety concerns.
STAARR's meeting will be 6-8 p.m. Monday at 17 North Fourth Street. The meeting is being hosted in part by Ward 3 Councilman Roy Lovelady, D'Markus Thomas-Brown, and Renee Carter.
STAARR is holding the meeting to bring community members together to discuss its needs and wants as well as the recent rise in community violence.
These meetings come after a shooting hospitalized one man in central Columbia on Wednesday, a standoff that led to a Columbia man facing several felonies after he was charged for allegedly pointing a gun at a person on Sunday, as well as the incident at the Activity and Recreation Center in Columbia on June 11 that lead to one woman being charged with four felonies for allegedly pistol-whipping a boy.
"We're going to be doing education around violence and we'll just put that up with the community needs and wants," said STAARR member D'Markus Thomas-Brown. "We want to know what the voices in the community are saying, what the stakeholders saying in the community, and that's important because we need to hear from everybody who is a part of the community, a part of Columbia."
"That's why we are drawing the community together because we can't do this without all the community members coming together and collaborating with each other," said STAARR member Renee Carter.
Carter said, "Other groups that are addressing these issues also need to be collaborating together so they we're silos."
Though Columbia Resident Jerome Middleton said he would like to see community leaders speaking to the community.
"I think you know, we need more representatives and city councilmen to get out there and speak to the community, speak to the people, and find out what the needs are, and you know, and how can we, you know, come together especially to resolve, you know, the shootings and violence that is going on in our community," said Middleton.
