Special Report: “Murder: Behind The Stats”

“Murder’s one of those things that is very, very difficult for the police to prevent,” said Chief Ken Burton at an April Columbia Police Review Board meeting.

The statement came nearly three weeks after a shooting claimed the lives of two men on I-70 Drive Northwest. Days before their death, a woman died from a separate shooting on Madison Street.

The three homicides came quicker than Columbia’s first homicide the year prior. Columbia logged six homicides in 2016, a jump from 2015’s surprising low homicide count of one.

The United States’ largest cities have experienced record highs in homicides the last two years. Cities like Baltimore and Chicago recorded their cities’ highest totals in years, and St. Louis and Kansas City had levels above what is typically expected there. While homicide rates, and crime rates as a whole, remain historically low, are cities similar to Columbia also experiencing an uptick in murder?

ABC 17 News analyzed data from 25 cities on their homicide numbers and population from 2015 to 2016. The cities were chosen through the Benchmark Cities program, which Columbia participates in sharing data between the governments on numerous different categories. The graph shows the number of homicides in 2015 (green) and 2016 (red), along with the murder rate that year listed in parentheses.

Of the 25 cities, Columbia and eight others saw the homicide rate go up. Sixteen of the cities saw the rate either go down or stay the same.

Columbia’s homicide rate in 2015 amounted to just .8 per 100,000 people. It made the second-largest jump of the 25 cities reviewed in 2016, rising to 5.04 per 100,000 people. Peoria, Arizona made the largest jump in rate, from .86 in 2015 (one homicide) to 8.61 in 2016 (10 homicides).

Columbia police spokeswoman Bryana Larimer said crime rates often fluctuate from year to year. While the department can do its best to deter people from violent crime, homicides remain a tricky category to totally prevent.

Sergeant Randy Clark with the Lincoln Police Department said murders there often occur between people that know each other. Lincoln went from one homicide in 2015 to 11 in 2016, which almost overtook a two-decade high of 12 homicides there, Clark said. While the increase is troubling, Clark said LPD didn’t necessarily change its policing tactics. Many of the homicides were between domestic partners, while others involved drug deals.

“Homicides are hard to put a finger on as to when and where they may happen,” Clark told ABC 17 News. “Because often times it starts with a domestic situation that’s gone bad and one thing leads to another, and a homicide is committed.”

LPD does have several programs aimed at addressing violent crime. The department works with several city agencies to hold landlords accountable when properties become run down. Clark said this has reduced violent crime in some areas. Clark said it’s important for police to become familiar with the people in neighborhoods who can help identify people who may be causing problems there.

“Possibly, although it can’t really be statistically tracked, I’m sure that there have been some homicides prevented just because of certain individuals being arrested and taken to jail and out of the mix, where maybe something was brewing and that a homicide was potentially in the future,” Clark said.

CPD currently has six officers dedicated to its Community Outreach Unit, which does foot patrols in neighborhoods with higher levels of violent crime. The officers meet with people who live there and organize or participate in community events. Two new officers will soon join the COU through a federal grant.

Along with those officers, Columbia employs two outreach specialists to speak with people on how the city can better serve them. Glenn Cobbins Sr. and Judy Hubbard have been doing the work since 2015, and aim to find “deliverables” for them – ways the city can quickly improve the quality of life there.

Both Hubbard and Cobbins said the effects of homicide are far-reaching.

“Every time we have a homicide, they all have something in common – somebody has lost a child, or lost a son or daughter, on both sides,” Hubbard said. “Because of the perpetrator or the victim.”

“We also know that where there’s poverty, there’s crime,” Cobbins said. “Because I’m not going to starve just because I’m poor. The mindset of anybody impoverished, doesn’t matter if your African-American, Hispanic, Caucasian, anybody impoverished gonna have a mindset of poor ways.”

CPD is still preparing to start its focused deterrence program. Larimer said it’s meeting with several agencies to sign a memorandum of understanding to participate. That includes the FBI, ATF, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Boone County prosecutor’s office, both state and federal probation offices and the University of Missouri Police Department. All agencies involved will be able to refer people they know involved in crime with social services that might help them and get away from committing crime again.

Kansas City employed a similar method several years ago, branded the KC No Violence Alliance. When asked if Kansas City’s spike in homicides in 2016 gave CPD concern, Larimer cited fluctuating nature of crime rates.

“We want to make sure we are trying to help people again become productive assets in this community and give them another answer instead of going back to a criminal behavior,” Larimer said. “These are programs that we can attempt. You know, if we don’t try anything at all, then what are we doing?”

The focused deterrence program is dependent on a community outcry against violent behavior. Cobbins and Hubbard said that along with an investment in the police department, more resources in education and job opportunities would help drive homicides down. It would take the work of a whole community to tackle the issue properly.

“It’s a team effort. It’s got to be,” Cobbins said. “We’d be out here just chasing our tail, and that’s something I refuse to do.”