Columbia police change enforcement efforts in response to recent shootings

The Columbia Police Department is changing its enforcement efforts in response to recent shootings.

At a Downtown Columbia Leadership Council meeting Tuesday, Deputy Chief John Gordon said the department will go back to saturation patrols to help fight some crime hot spots.

“We know it’s (a) temporary fix,” Gordon said. “At least it will calm shots-fired calls down.”

Gordon said the idea for the saturation patrols is to target high-crime areas, have an increased police presence and for officers to get to know the neighborhood. These patrols would be outside of areas the Community Outreach Unit already serves.

Gordon said in the meeting he knows that saturation patrols aren’t always favored by the community but if the strategy helps get crime down, they will do it.

“We’ve seen an uptick in shots fired, shooting on shooting in cars, and the next step is looking at those crime areas,” he said.

Right now, the department doesn’t have exact areas of where it will start the patrols, or a time. Gordon said officers will be on overtime while doing these patrols.

Two community officers were announced last week, Officer Maria Phelps and Officer Justin Thomas will serve the Whitegate and Sylvan areas.