Columbia police leaders meet with social justice group

Five months after a contentious meeting between the two, Columbia police leadership met with a social justice group on its work towards social equity.

Chief Ken Burton joined City Manager Mike Matthes to Race Matters, Friends’ meeting Tuesday night at Bethel Church. The two, alongside several members of CPD’s command staff, took part in a “listening session,” where staff members answered questions about police training, as well as listen to what group members felt a positive direction for the department would be.

In July, members of Race Maters, Friends stormed out of a Columbia City Council meeting while Burton attempted to defend his department from claims of potential racial profiling. A state attorney general report showed black drivers were three times more likely to be pulled over than white drivers in Columbia, based on driving-age population, and members wanted some sort of acknowledgement of the report. Burton pushed back on the thought his officers intentionally racially profiled, but announced last month he had a “change of heart” on the topic, and began to dig into individual officers traffic stop numbers to monitor the potential of racial profiling.

Department staff on Tuesday discussed new training the department has employed in the last year to tackle issues of implicit bias and fair policing. In house, Sergeant Mike Hestir leads its implicit bias training, which every sworn officer at CPD has now gone through.

The Department of Justice hosted its “procedural justice” training last year, aimed at helping officers treat people fairly and honestly during interactions. The state now requires all law enforcement agencies to train on this yearly, Chief Burton said.

Deputy Chief Jill Schlude said training to be a police officer was much different when she went through the academy in the 1990s compared to today. While racial bias was certainly discouraged then, she said, it was merely paid lip service and not fully explored like CPD does now.

“What does this really look like when you involve human beings and not spreadsheets,” Schlude told ABC 17 News about the department’s training. “And that’s really what I think is the most important part.”

The point, Schlude said, is to improve communication between an officer and someone stopped. Oftentimes, people can “fill in the blanks” if not told a reason for a stop, or if someone doesn’t cooperate with an officer’s investigation. That includes feelings of racial profiling.

The department also focuses on procedural justice within the command staff.

“It’s important that we’re being fair with our staff, letting them know what the expectation is, what the rules are, and we’re going to apply these fairly no matter who you are in the organization,” Schlude said.

Race Matters, Friends member Traci Wilson-Kleekamp said she felt the internal use of procedural justice was an important step for CPD. However, questions remained between the two on strategy for a model of community policing. So far, the department employs a Community Outreach Unit, six patrol officers to work in specific neighborhoods, dedicated to working “foot patrols” and meeting the people that live there. Plans to expand the unit have not been detailed.

Wilson-Kleekamp has long agreed for the need to hire more officers to effectively serve the city. Currently, the department’s call-per-officer ratio is double the average of similarly-sized cities, Matthes said at the meeting. Funding for more officers could come in the form of a voter-approved property tax increase. Wilson-Kleekamp said she could not support such a tax, though, without a clear understanding of how community-oriented policing would thrive in Columbia.