Columbia police review policy on officer-involved shootings, critical incidents
The Columbia Police Department is reviewing its policies as part of a process to get accredited by a third party.
Law enforcement agency standards are always subject to review by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. CPD is working through its policies and asking for community input as part of the process.
“I just want to make sure our policies are transparent and people have the opportunity to ask me questions about how I arrived at decisions or to make recommendations,” said Interim Police Chief Geoff Jones.
At a public meeting scheduled for Monday, CPD planned to talk about four policies including one on officer-involved shootings and critical incidents.
The policy draft says the purpose is to “ensure that officer-involved shootings and critical incidents are investigated in a thorough, fair and impartial manner.”
The draft outlines the types of investigations that may be involved in these incidents, the chain of command on the scene and the role of the involved officer in the investigations.
Other policies the department planned to review include those relating to officers who are hurt or killed in the line of duty, the use of both the BolaWrap and Narcan.
For each policy, it’s written up within the department then sent to Jones’ desk for him to review. After that the community gets a chance to look them over before asking questions and giving feedback at the policy review meetings. Once the community gives feedback, the policy goes to the city manager for review.
No one from the community attended Monday’s meeting, so Jones said he would set a new date to talk about the policies before sending them to the city manager’s desk. The new date has not been set.
