Traffic crashes in Columbia have risen since 2015

It’s been about eight months since CPD eliminated it’s Traffic Unit and moved officers over to the Patrol Division.

Last November 2015, ABC 17 News got an e-mail from an unnamed source quoting Deputy Chief Jill Schlude, “Patrol has already reallocated 2 officers and a sergeant to the unit… Ultimately we felt that the best and most practical option was to reassign the officers in the traffic unit back to patrol.”

City manager, Mike Matthes says “traffic in the scheme of things, is just less important,” he says, “that means speeding tickets are not a priority, if we are out driving and we happen to see that, yes we will enforce the law of course, but it’s just less important.”

Taking a deeper look at the amount of traffic crashes compared to last year, when the unit was still active. Traffic crashes have risen slightly. In 2015, traffic crashes were around 177, and in 202 in 2016. Out of those crashes in 2016, 16 were alcohol and drug related, which is a 60 percent increase from 2015.

DUI arrests have fallen in the last couple of years as well. In 2015, 199 DUI arrests were made, and in 2016 149 arrests were made.

ABC 17 News reached out to the Columbia Police Department to check back in, and in an e-mail response CPD spokesperson Bryana Larimer says, “I think a common misconception is that we no longer have officers working traffic related complaints when in fact, we simply moved the two traffic officers. Essentially, instead of them only handling traffic related complaints and/or calls, having them in the patrol division allows for dispatching them to calls for service that are not related to traffic; helping out community as a whole.”