UPDATE: City council puts hold on community policing changes

UPDATE: The Columbia City Council put a hold on proposed changes to the police department’s Community Outreach Unit.

Mayor Brian Treece suggested CPD wait to make the changes, if any, until the city presented its comprehensive community-oriented policing report in December.

City council members Clyde Ruffin, Matt Pitzer and Betsy Peters declined to comment further on the discussion after the meeting, expect to say they agreed with Treece’s proposal to hold off on making any changes.

Police Chief Ken Burton told the council that the delays may cause issues with the department’s process of assigning shifts for 2019. Officers must apply for their unit assignments and choose their work shifts, a process called “bidding,” by the start of the year. Burton said the department could still fill the COU spots by March.

“We’ll make those selections in March, but those eight people are all going to have to move now,” Burton said. “It could affect whether they put in for the job.”

Treece questioned Burton and Matthes on the timing of the idea coming together, and when CPD notified leaders of their intent. Burton said the idea to move the COU citywide came from Sgt. Clint Sinclair, who presented the idea as a way to get the COU to work closer with the Patrol unit. The department discussed the idea for several months starting in August, then presented it to Matthes in October or November, according to Burton.

Deputy Chief Jill Schlude’s memo announcing the changes, including the new Community Response Unit name, is dated Oct. 25.

Matthes and Burton disagreed on how discussions about the name of the unit went. Matthes said he wanted to keep the name of the unit the Community Outreach Unit before the memo went out, while Burton said he first learned of the city manager’s disapproval of the name last week.

Burton said department leaders wanted to change the name in order to get interest in the unit. He said officers were getting “burned out” on the work the unit does, which involves interacting with people living in the focus neighborhoods to solve problems. Officers wanted more time to work on things like car break-ins and burglaries, Burton said, the kind of “police work” that people get into law enforcement to do.

“Because of their success in these individual neighborhoods, their police work has dropped off,” Burton said. “Their interaction with the community has increased, but their ability to go out and do police work, which is what they signed on to do, has diminished.”

Some residents accused city leaders of making changes to the COU behind city council members’ backs.

“Chief Burton dismantled the COU unit under the supervision of Mike Matthes,” said Lynn Maloney, a member of Race Matters, Friends. Maloney then turned her attention to Matthes at the dais.

“Shame on you, Mr. Matthes. Shame on you.”

Members of the group, who have not been shy in calling for Matthes and Burton to leave city government or be fired, criticized the lack of transparency in the way city leaders handled the changes.

“We think it’s time for someone new who will respond to the will and needs of the community, and treat us and you with respect, someone new who will respond to the city council’s directions,” Race Matters, Friends member Virginia Muller said.

City staff lauded the work of the Community Outreach Unit at the start of the meeting. Toni Messina pointed out that two of the four neighborhoods the COU serves reported feeling safer in 2017 than they did in 2016.

ORIGINAL: The Columbia City Council is expected to discuss proposed changes to the way the Columbia Police Department implements community-oriented policing.

City Manager Mike Matthes and Police Chief Ken Burton both said last week that they plan on addressing the council at its Monday meeting about the proposal to change the Community Outreach Unit’s focus. The unit, which currently focuses on four neighborhoods, will now divide its work throughout the city’s eight “beats.” Each beat will have one officer assigned to it.

Both Matthes and Burton clarified the intent of the changes last week. Burton said the changes may help attract officers to the job, which he said CPD had difficulty doing for the last three COU vacancies, and guessed that officers wanted more “action” in policing than the COU provided. The job would give them a chance to work closely with patrol officers in different beats to solve problems and gives the unit duties over downtown Columbia during special events. Matthes added that the plan would help bring the unit’s efforts citywide, rather than in just four neighborhoods.

City council members and members of the public have criticized the move. Third Ward councilman Karl Skala, whose ward is served by two COU teams, said the areas in which the teams currently work have seen a 30 percent reduction in crime.

“I believe that the proposed ‘expansion’ of community policing is really a ‘dilution’ of an effective community policing effort in the three (plus one in the Whitegate area) underserved areas … that have had significant crime reduction numbers,” Skala said in an email on Saturday.

Fourth Ward councilman Ian Thomas told ABC 17 News last week that he was “disappointed” in the changes being made, but said he was “asking questions and doing research” on the issue in light of Burton and Matthes’ comments.

Second Ward councilman Michael Trapp told ABC 17 News on Friday that he supported the move, but thought the exclusion of the council or community in the discussion was a “missed opportunity.” The council passed a resolution in February calling for a plan to implement community-oriented policing citywide, which included public discussion of how to do it.