Columbia police holding fair and impartial policing class for public

The Columbia Police Department held a fair and impartial policing training class for the public Saturday from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m.

This is the same class the CPD officers take and will continue to take annually.

The Columbia Police Department invited the public to the class so the community can see what the department has done to address bias within the department.

Sergeant Mike Hestir, who led the class, talked a lot about his career as an officer and the policies of the Columbia Police Department. Hestir said the CPD started diversity training for its officers in 1999.

The attendees had opportunities to voice their concerns and ask questions about situations, both real and hypothetical, they may be in.

One attendee asked why an officer would take her report about a car burglary but not dust for fingerprints. She said something like that grows resentment toward officers because it appears they are not doing the most they can be to solve the crime. Hestir explained those fingerprints would be sent to the state crime lab. Hestir said because of under-staffing, the lab is backlogged about a year for high-profile crimes like rape and murder.

Hestir emphasized the importance of officers to be fair to citizens in order for residents to have respect of officers.

“We are facing not just what we do,” Hestir said. “But what every other officer has done and every officer in history has done.”

Hestir referenced research indicating if the community doesn’t trust law enforcement officers, the community typically does not want to help. Hestir told a story about a shooting he investigated in Columbia.

“I put a tourniquet on the victim to stop the bleeding,” Hestir said. “After the victim was taken away in the ambulance, I started talking to witnesses. ‘Did you see anything?’ ‘No.’ ‘Did you see anything?’ ‘No.’ There were 150 people there. The street was not empty was the shooting happened.”

Hestir had the attendees work in groups and talk about a hypothetical situation involving two officers pulling over everyone who breaks a traffic law, but one officer only tickets Hispanics.

The group agreed it was racial bias but soon the conversation turned to a hypothetical situation involving a string of home burglaries involving Hispanic suspects. The group asked if it was still racial bias to stop Hispanics in the area as part of the officers’ investigation.

Hestir pointed out that kind of policing is more harmful than helpful.

“If you don’t have a lawful reason to stop somebody, you shouldn’t,” Hestir said. “That’s the Fourth Amendment. If we don’t have specifics on the suspects [age, car] it’s not worth the damage to police legitimacy to stop everybody.”

Earlier this year, a report from the attorney general’s office suggested Columbia officers make traffic stops on minorities three times as often as non-minorities. Chief Ken Burton initially disagreed with the findings.

The controversy, in addition to a CPOA survey suggesting low morale in the department, led a local group to call for the resignation of Burton.

The CPD has been working on a “community policing” method and to that end has started their Community Outreach Unit. The unit designated officers to specific neighborhoods in hopes of building relationships with the residents, and eventually creating strong relationships between residents and officers.