Columbia Police Department grant for domestic violence unit renewed
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
On Monday, the Columbia City Council authorized a grant that would help fund a domestic violence unit for the police department.
It renews the existing STOP Violence Against Women Act from the Missouri Department of Public Safety which is worth $195,255.10. The contract period from the grant runs from 2024-2025.
According to the council memo, the funds would go toward paying for salaries and benefits for two sworn CPD officers and one temporary part-time employee assigned to investigate domestic violence cases.
“I absolutely believe that it is needed,” said Michele Snodderley, who is the executive director of True North, a domestic and sexual violence victim service program. “We actually have two retired domestic violence detectives at our agency right now that work for us. It helps with working together as a collaborative team. We are able to identify those, reach out [to victims] sooner and so yes I think those detectives are definitely needed.
The detectives are part of a county-wide Domestic Violence Enforcement Program known as the DOVE unit. The unit's goal is to decrease the number of incidents in the Boone County area with education, intervention, enforcement, and prosecution.
According to Columbia’s Stop WAWA Grant Application, the Columbia Police Department has investigated nearly 11,000 domestic violence cases since 2015, averaging 1,200 a year. Roughly 4,000 of those were criminal cases and 75% of those cases involved a female victim. The data spans from 2015 to August 2023.
“It’s very prevalent in Columbia,” Snodderley told ABC 17 News. “As a matter of fact Missouri ranks number three for states. We are third-ranked for incidents of domestic violence. On top of that in 2022 and 2023 just about every single homicide was domestic violence related.”
The entire DOVE unit consists of four prosecuting attorneys -- three devoted to female victims and one devoted to male victims -- two detectives and a part-time assistant from CPD, one detective from the Boone County Sheriff’s Office, a victim advocate from True North, three prosecution advocates, two probation officers, a court coordinator and a counselor from the Family Counseling Center.
However, the application states that the detective position from the Sheriff’s Office was vacated in 2021 and has yet to be filled. A spokesman for the Sheriff's Office says that they have continued to investigate domestic assault cases but still do not have a detective assigned to investigate cases of domestic violence as their primary caseload. They added that cases of domestic violence needing investigative follow-up are assigned to a variety of personnel in the department based on a variety of factors.
When the application was submitted in September, data showed that CPD’s DOVE unit had provided services to 242 domestic violence victims in just seven months (January-August). In 2022, that number reached 462. ABC 17 News reached out to CPD.
The city has been awarded money from the grant five times, dating back to 2014.
Check back for updates.
