Columbia Police sergeant responds to internal affairs report

Columbia Police leaders said their force is still young and learning, but they think most officers practice restraint.

ABC 17 reported Monday about the latest numbers explaining how many times police used force in 2014.

They had a total of 308 cases last year, meaning officers used force more than 6% of the time during arrests.

That includes 32 cases where they used tasers or pepper spray. Two people were also bitten by dogs.

Officers drew their weapons 150 times.

ABC 17 News sat down with Sergeant Paul Dickinson from the internal affairs division.

He thinks the yearly report is a gesture of good faith toward the community, to show the department has nothing to hide.

“I think the report demonstration shows that the officers in Columbia are only using force or responding to resistance when we need to. Out of the almost 154,000 calls for service last year, in less than 1% of those calls we actually used force against somebody. The chief wants to be open about how we do business in Columbia and how to build relationships with the community and this is an important way. We don’t want to hide anything,we want to be open about what we do and how we do it,” said Dickinson.

19 people filed complaints about the department last year.

Along with their own investigations, they recorded at least 25 cases of officer misconduct.