Columbia police respond to nearly 500 gun violence calls last year
Columbia Police Department officers responded to nearly 500 calls for gunshots heard or shots fired between July 2018 and July 2019.
According to dispatch records, there have been 153 calls for shots fired since July 22, 2018. In the same time frame, there have been 343 calls for shots heard.
“It’s gotten so that makes up a much larger proportion of the officer’s day, so the officer spends a lot more time engaged in activity that’s really intense and I think that just wears on the officers,” said Dale Roberts, the Columbia Police Officers Association director.
The records reflect how a call came in and do not necessarily mean there was a shooting connected to it. Police sometimes either cannot find evidence that shots were fired or find evidence the sound was caused by something else, such as fireworks or a vehicle backfiring.
The latest incident happened early Sunday, when officers responded to a call for shots heard on Apple Tree Court in south Columbia. During their investigation, officers found 32 shell casings at the scene including one bullet lodged in a child’s bedroom wall.
Nearly 24 hours earlier, at 4:15 am. Saturday, officers were called to the area of Olympic Boulevard and Hanover Boulevard for shots fired. During that investigation, officers did not find any evidence of a shooting and cleared the call.
“Officers say they get so many shots fired calls now, it’s almost routine,” Roberts said. “Some of them say they don’t tend to call for backup and don’t respond the way they used to when there were gunshots.”
