STAARR, CPD held meetings Monday night to discuss crime, safety in Columbia
Watch the Columbia police meeting in the player above.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Columbia Police Department and Stronger Together Aspiring and Achieving Relevant Relationships held separate community meetings to discuss community violence and safety in Columbia on Monday night.
Monday night's meeting covered crime trends and safety issues in the North Districts of Columbia. The meeting was held 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 presented information and answer questions regarding community-based crime trends and safety concerns.
"We're just hoping to share information with the public that they can use, maybe deal with some perceptions or misinformation that might be out there that people get, and give them the opportunity to meet a lot of new members," CPD Assistant Chief Jill Schlude on Friday.
Due to a conflicting meeting with the Columbia Citizens Police Review Board, the Columbia Police Department's meetings were initially set for May 10 and 11 but were rescheduled for Monday and Thursday.
STAARR's meeting was held from 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 needs and wants as well as the recent rise in community violence. Carter and Thomas-Brown said they do have another one in the works for Columbia's youth in July.
"We're going to be doing education around violence and we'll just put that up with the community needs and wants," STAARR member D'Markus Thomas-Brown said on Thursday. "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."
