Northeast Columbia residents meet with CPD officers at second town hall meeting
Columbia Police officers met with about a dozen northeast Columbia residents Wednesday night at the department’s second town hall meeting.
“I’m concerned that crime is rampant everywhere,” said Robin Koury, a Belmont Park resident. “I don’t like driving around everywhere and seeing panhandlers. They make me nervous.”
During Wednesday night’s meeting, residents and officers talked about the department’s Community Outreach Unit, the department’s officer shortage and crime in the area.
Two of Columbia’s three homicides this year have happened in the department’s Beat 30 and 40 area.
On April 25, Gabrielle Rhodes, 24, was shot and killed in the 1500 block of Sylvan Lane. On June 25, Edmund “Ricky” Randolph, 25, was found dead inside a home in the 2900 block of Leeway Drive.
No arrests have been made in either case.
According to police dispatch records, CPD has responded to Sylvan Lane on nine different occasions for reports of shots fired or shots heard, and four times for reports of assault.
“Anything we can do to get participation to reduce the likelihood that those things are happening, we want to do,” said Lt. Geoff Jones.
Lt. Jones supervises the department’s Community Outreach Unit, which has two officers patrolling and building relationships with residents in the northeast part of Columbia.
“When I come to the northeast part of town, I feel a warmer reception than I have in the past,” he said. “I think there’s a relationship there that had been broken down in the past and has improved. I think we’ve made progress, but we still have progress to make.”
After Wednesday night’s town hall meeting, Koury said she feels comforted that the officers are willing to talk with her.
“I made a connection. I put a name to a face,” she said. “Not somebody you call and talk to over the phone. You actually met the officer, you hear about their life story on the job and know how tough it is.”
CPD is meeting with southeast Columbia residents tomorrow from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Shepard Boulevard Elementary.
