This Week with Columbia PD Outreach

This Sunday, a big neighborhood barbeque is happening for a northeast Columbia community that’s seen more than its fair share of violence and crime.

Officer Scott Lenger is with the Columbia Police Department’s Community Outreach Unit. As our guest for “This Week,” I start our conversation by asking him why it’s so important that the outreach efforts connect and resonate with young people.

Here’s a transcript of our conversation:

Scott Lenger: The children are what we want to strive to contact first and develop those relationships that can last a generation, that they can pass on to their generation. Develop a friendship with them. Give them almost a positive role model in life, if they don’t have any and try to help the go forward do the right thing, do good things. And have that helping hand to push them forward if they don’t have that positive role model in their life. I think it’s also a way to contact the parents. If we have a positive relationship with the children and they see that the parents are sometimes more apt to come and talk to us cause of that relationship we build with them.

Joey Parker: How is that relationship go from youth to adulthood. How do you see that transition happening?

Scott Lenger: So we see children at a very young age. Kindergarten, first grade, second grade, in our areas. And if we see them at that age, I told another reporter yesterday, I have another 15 years at least here. So I’m going to see them grow up. And potentially see some of the children that we deal with and some of the older children, middle age and high school children, have kids. I think that relationship between that person and my partner and I develop into a generational relationship going further.

Joey Parker: Speaking of that reporter, Sara Maslar-Donar, our ABC 17 News reporter, you were talking to her. And one of the things you said was that community policing works, but the whole city needs to get involved. How is that?

Scott Lenger: We have to start in small chunks just like anywhere else. So I think that the stuff that we are doing now can pay big dividends in the areas that we are in now, which in turn could progress throughout the city. Getting everyone involved in order to do a whole city wide policing effort.

Joey Parker: What do you say is happening on Bodie and a couple miles away on Quail. What’s going on in these neighborhoods?

Scott Lenger: There were several high profile instances that occurred and we kind of linked them to some individuals and the same groups.

Joey Parker: So you say it’s a few bad actors that are trying to ruin the neighborhood for a lot of good people.

Scott Lenger: Yeah, I don’t know if they go out and try to ruin the neighborhood, but I think the actions that they take make it look like the entire neighborhood and all the people in those neighborhoods are the ones causing the problems. When in fact, it could potentially be that small amount, small core group of people that are causing the issues.

Joey Parker: You often know who’s the bad actor, generally, to use that term again.

Scott Lenger: Generally we do yes.

Joey Parker: But they have to break the law in order to be arrested and they have to go through the legal system. So it’s not entirely up to you guys. So is that a frustration sometimes?

Scott Lenger: Well, we have to act on probable cause and if probable cause exists to arrest them, then yes, we will take action. But we can also do a holistic way of dealing with people that are causing those problems and try to go talk with them. Sit down and say “hey here’s what we see from the outside. Here’s what people in the community see from the inside. What can we do to come together, fix this problem, so we don’t have to be out here and deal with the same problem over and over again.”

Joey Parker: I notice sometime at the end of a news release, you all will say that someone is “uncooperative” – a witness, sometimes the victim them self is uncooperative. So that’s got to be really frustrating.

Scott Lenger: Very frustrating sometimes. Because all the officers at the police department, all they want to do is come and help. They want to solve these issues, the problems, and the crimes that occur. So when we are not getting the help that we need to help solve this, it does become frustrating. That’s where I think the community policing effort and this type of policing comes into effort tremendously because we can develop the relationships with the people that now we can go back and talk with them, and hopefully they will give us insight.

Joey Parker: The neighborhood BBQ is this Sunday, from 2 until 8 at Auburn Hills Park- that’s Derby Ridge Road. And now as much as you want the entire city to be involved in community policing, this particular one is really for the neighborhood.

Scott Lenger: That’s correct. The strategic north neighborhood, that’s what we are shooting for. So, we want to get those folks that live in that neighborhood that we are walking in, that we drive in, that we police. We want them to come to be with us, to ask questions, to meet their neighbors, instead of pushing down those barriers of “I don’t know why this happens down in this neighborhood, but it doesn’t happen in my neighborhood.”

Joey Parker: And for more information, people can access your Facebook page or even follow you, Scott, on Twitter.

Scott Lenger: That’s right.

Joey Parker: Officer Lenger, thank you very much for joining us. We will see you at the cookout.

Scott Lenger: Thank you.