More than 2,000 calls to Columbia police in 2023 involve homeless people

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Columbia Police Department Assistant Chief Lance Bolinger has seen an increase in the homeless population over the years.

"When I first started policing 18 years ago, we did not have nearly the homeless population that we have in Columbia today," Bolinger said. "I would say today it consumes a lot more of our time and resources than what it did 10 years ago."

Downtown Community Improvement District Executive Director Nickie Davis told ABC 17 News that in the past five years, she's seen a "dramatic" increase in the number of issues or incidents businesses in Downtown have had to deal with. She wasn't able to ballpark a number for ABC 17 News, when asked about the number of incidents within the last year.

According to data given to ABC 17 News by the Columbia Police Department, the department responded to 2,168 calls of service involving unhoused people, 1,960 of which did not result in an arrest. The data spans from Jan. 1, 2023-Jan. 10, 2024.

The department has responded to 50 calls this month, as of Jan. 10.

According to CPD, the leading types of calls involving homeless individuals in 2023 included trespassing:

• Trespassing: 31.1% of calls
• Check subject: 13.6% of calls
• Disturbance: 10% of calls
• Larceny: 5.5% of calls
• Burglary: 2.7% of calls

"We've done a lot better job of tracking the data involving the unhoused-or-homeless population over the last year than what we've done historically," Bolinger said. "I think us collecting that data gives us a better understanding of the problems."

Bolinger said the department trains its officers on crisis intervention, which gives them experience on "dealing with people [who are] down on their luck [and] dealing with the troubles of life." He said one of the trainings the department had last year, was specifically designed for interacting with homeless individuals.

Kari Utterback of The Boone County Coalition to End Homelessness said that, as of Wednesday, there were 261 people experiencing homelessness in Boone County. Out of the 234 people reported as homeless, 41 were veterans. The coalition runs counts each month. According to previous reporting, there were 210 people reported as being homeless in Boone County in 2023.

Nickie Davis said around 20-30 people who are considered homeless tend to hang out in the downtown area. She said she's had some businesses come to her with concerns.

"[We've had] all different ones. Some are very founded and some are you know, just more of a perception type of thing," Davis said.

Davis said the Downtown CID works closed with CPD and has had a contract with 4-A-Change for about six years. On its website, the organization describes itself as a consulting firm which helps to facilitate positive change. It says it provides direct outreach, coaching and referrals for homeless people and other struggling individuals.

"[Those options are] for our businesses to call whenever they're in situations where they don't quite know how to deal with or see something that obviously someone's in some type of need or help," Davis said.

On Wednesday afternoon, ABC 17 News checked in with six businesses in Downtown Columbia to learn about their experiences with the homeless population. All of the businesses except one, declined to comment or said they did not have anyone to speak with at the time.

Dipak Patel -- who is a manager of Hitt Mini Mart (commonly referred to as "No Gas" around town) --shared his experiences with Columbia's homeless population.

"There's good, good people out there," Patel said. "But then there's the ones that take drugs or drink so much. I mean, I open the store at 7 a.m. and they're here at 7:15 a.m. buying nothing but alcohol, so it's a mixed feeling."

No Gas is located at the intersection of Hitt and Locust streets. Patel said that being at that location, he sees a lot of homeless people pass through each day.

"Being an employee of No Gas, we try to help as many people as we can," Patel said. "There was a guy that came in here when it was negative -12 [degrees]. I gave him some hot chocolate and a hot hands and an extra hat from us. I bought it, who cares. It's negative -12 [degrees], it's dangerous out there."

Patel said he's had mixed experiences. He said that recently, he caught one man stealing a can of soup after that man had purchased alcohol. He said he didn't call police, but told the man not to come back.

"It's like an on-going battle of 'What can we do?," Patel said. "You know, we're trying to do as best as we can, but there's only so many options we have."

"I think it's a difficult problem and I don't think this is something that the police are going to be able to solve on their own," Bolinger said. "I think this is something that it's going to take a collective collaboration from a lot of people. I think police are part of the solution, but I don't think they're going to be the solution."