Columbia lies between two high crime-rated cities; how Columbia’s crime rates are affected

Even though homicide rates and crime rates in the United States have been, overall, historically low in the past couple of years, cities such as Kansas City and St. Louis have seen a significant increase, according to statistics.

Online records show that Kansas City went from a violent crime rate of about 692 incidents per 100,000 people in 2014 to about 782 in 2015. Homicide rates went up from 16.7 in 2014 to 23 in 2015.

The city of Columbia lies between Kansas City and St. Louis, with a major arterial highway, Interstate 70, as a connector.

Detective Tom O’Sullivan, spokesperson for the Boone County Sheriff’s Department, said he has noticed an increase of out-of-towners in the Boone County jail, but the majority of them didn’t commit murder.

“Most of the homicides involve local people, both as victim and suspect,” O’Sullivan said.

Although, two of the homicides in Columbia so far in 2017 did involve two people visiting from out of state, O’Sullivan said he doesn’t believe the high homicide rates in Kansas City and St. Louis directly affect the homicide rate in Columbia.

O’Sullivan said when it comes to other violent crimes, a lot of the criminals tend to move from town to town, or engage in criminal activities outside of their hometown.

“You’re going to have people who are engaging in criminal activity using I-70 to get to one place or another,” O’Sullivan said.

He said criminals traveling through Columbia is just a side effect of being near several larger highways.