Columbia City Council to review community policing report

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Community leaders will discuss policing in Columbia on Tuesday. The City Council will meet for its pre-council meeting at 6 p.m. in City Hall.

The Council will review a report from the Columbia Police Department on community policing and have the opportunity to ask questions. The report outlines several things the department is doing to improve community policing.

Part of that process is to move officers who were in the community outreach unit, which includes former school resource officers, to "float cars." According to the report, these officers will help respond to calls that require multiple officers, allowing beat officers to stay in the areas they patrol.

Columbia police also plan to make changes to these beats. The department currently has the city divided into eight beats, but plans to break that down further into 16.

Columbia police have stressed the importance of having good relationships with the community to help fight crime. Officers have also pointed out that community members coming forward directly to police or through CrimeStoppers to stay anonymous has helped them in cases.

The report says the department has a goal to establish a network of community contacts, which will be "measured by the number of community members who will work with police to advocate for the community and jointly advocate for the police."

Training is another way the department says it will work to eliminate bias. The report states the department will aim for all officers to become "total cops."

"A Total Cop is empowered to make decisions, enforce the law responsibly and empower others (including citizens and his or her direct reports, if any) to identify and solve problems."

Traci Wilson-Kleekamp with Race Matters Friends said the report needs some major work before it can be considered community-oriented.

Wilson-Kleekamp said, for starters, the 158-page report is not easy to navigate, without a table of contents or clearly numbered pages.

She also said the department should have gotten feedback from community members before presenting it to the council.

Wilson-Kleekamp also said the report does not meanfully deal with disparities or underlying problems. She noted the report included that the department and other community leaders went to Memphis to visit the National Civil Rights Museum.

The report said the return trip revealed everyone's understanding of each other and themselves.

Wilson-Kleekamp pointed out the report said the department plans to take the trip again, but said she thinks it should have included why. She also said it should have included what the department learned from the trip and how it has implemented change from that.

She said the report lacked a rubric for how things were being measured at the department.

For example, the report said, "The Training Lieutenant will include community-centered messaging in all CPD training." Wilson-Kleekamp said the language following that statement did not clearly outline what that language would be.

Wilson-Kleekamp said she feels the report does not show that the department is truly invested in collaborative policing.

The report does outline that is is not exactly clear what impact some of the department's tactics are having, either because of a transition period or because not enough time has passed with it in place.