Columbia City Council to hear community oriented policing program proposal
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Columbia City Council is set to hear a proposal regarding a new community oriented policing program, aimed at helping officers further integrate and understand the communities they serve.
The program, called the Community Oriented Policing Program would provide education and support needed for officers to embrace community-oriented policing tactics.
The program would begin as a competitive program for officers with monthly workshops focusing on different topics relating to community policing.
Topics covered in the program include:
- Trauma Informed Policing
- Systemic Racism
- LGTBQIA+ Safe Space
- Overcoming Implicit Bias
- Columbia History
- Juvenile Brain Development
- Personal Wellness and Mental Health
- Over Criminalization and Mass Incarceration
Each monthly session would include mentorship, activities with the community and educational workshops ran by experts in various fields.
The program listed the goals of the monthly sessions, including:
- Create and sustain a philosophy of community-oriented policing within officers
- Steadily develop a cultural shift within the police department wherein community-police
- partnerships are encouraged
- Peer-to-peer mentorship that increase morale of officers and increase accountability
- Community and police interactions and conversations that address social justice issues
- Education on topics meaningful to the Columbia community and that uphold long-term
- community-oriented policing goals
- Leadership training with a focus on equity and community
Following the monthly sessions, officers will be asked to implement tactics they've learned from previous sessions in a capstone project.
Exit interviews will then be conducted with officers to help guide the program to best serve the communities in Columbia.
The program has a yearly budget of $82,884.
