Columbia police arrests better than state, behind national rate

Columbia police made its third arrest for a homicide this year, leaving just two remaining homicides so far unsolved.

City leaders often claim the department has a higher rate of “clearing” cases than the national average.

“We have an overall better record of closing violent cases, and we do that with a smaller than average sized police force,” city council member Michael Trapp told ABC 17 News.

An ABC 17 analysis of federal, state and local numbers shows CPD’s arrest rate is better than that of Missouri as a whole, but below similarly-sized cities across the country. An open records request Wednesday shows the department made arrests in 38 percent of the violent crimes that happened in 2015. Law enforcement around the state arrested people connected with 32 percent of the violent crimes it investigated, while the national rate sat at 42 percent.

The local arrest rate for homicides went well above state and national levels, since CPD made an arrest in its one homicide that year. However, it failed it exceed the rates for cities with a population of 100,000 to 249,999 people for other crimes the FBI considers “violent,” such as rapes, robberies and assaults.

CPD arrested people in 34 percent of the rape cases it took last year, the same when compared to cities across the country. It’s several points higher than the state level of just 22 percent. In assaults, local authorities made arrests in 45 percent of the cases, behind the national rate of 50 percent.

Robberies for CPD lagged behind both state and national levels, with local authorities making arrests in 23 percent of cases taken.

Trapp tried calming fears people harbored after a weekend of gun violence in Columbia, including two homicides. He said the Mayor’s Task Force on Community Violence analyzed homicides in the last five years, and found the suspects often knew the victims.

“They’re almost always people who know each other, and that people who are not involved with the criminal lifestyle have very little to fear from these kinds of incidents,” Trapp said.

From January to September of this year, CPD “cleared” 43 percent of violent crimes.