Columbia City Council approves in-house NIBN technology, mayor says system will lead to prosecuting criminals quicker

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Columbia City Council unanimously approved the purchase of gun identification technology during Monday night's meeting.

The Columbia Police Department requested $208,934 from the asset forfeiture fund to purchase the technology that they say will help police be more effective in solving violent crimes in the city.

The National Integrated Ballistic Information Network is an evidence system that would help police link a shell casing to the gun it was fired from. Assistant Chief Lance Bolinger previously told ABC 17 News the system could speed up investigations by months since the system would be in-house and evidence would not have to be sent off.

Columbia Mayor Barbara Buffaloe says the new piece of technology purchased will help send a message to criminals.

"As Columbia grows you know, we're seeing these sort of like growing pains happening to us," Buffaloe said. "What this will allow us to do is to have those tools and resources that allow us to as we grow as a community, let those who want to practice criminal activity know that we have the resources to enforce the law and we'll do it quickly."

Assistant Chief Lance Bolinger said one of the benefits of the technology is that it will allow police to identify repeat offenders, something he said data shows happens frequently.

"We've got years worth of data that support that a lot of the people that were involved in one shooting will be involved in multiple shootings, both as suspects and victims," Bolinger said.

Buffaloe said crime that occurs within Columbia isn't something that goes unnoticed by her. She said the city is monitoring the issue and she has trust in the police department to ask for what is needed in order to help bring the numbers down.

Buffaloe said while the purchase of the technology will help police with their investigations, there are always multiple solutions to a problem.

In order to address crime within the city, Buffaloe said she thinks it will take having the correct amount of officers available as well as having the proper tools and resources readily available.

"I think it's important to know that like obviously no crime is acceptable," Buffaloe said. "Like there's no level of crime that is ideal and we want to see it reduced, which is why we're having resources and votes like this coming forward so that we can have it go down."

Ward 5 Councilman Don Waterman said he supports the purchase because it gives police another tool to solve cases.

"It may help us tie some things together or tie up some loose ends possibly, so I think that's going to be one of the advantages to it," Waterman said.

Ward 2 Councilwoman Lisa Meyer said she also supports giving police a tool which is why she voted yes, but said it's important to know it isn't the only component when it comes to decreasing crime.

"Technology is one... is a tool for them to use but what we need is a fully staffed professional police department," Meyer said. "And so this is not... this is something in addition to getting a fully staffed professional police department. I think it's important to understand that."

Police Chief Jill Schlude says the department is working on addressing its staffing issues.

"Even if we filled all 23 vacancies tomorrow, we don't have enough people to appropriately staff beats, specialized units," Schlude said. "People are asking about if we want to bring things back like the downtown unit, increase the size of the homeless outreach team, add more people to the street crimes unit...you just can't do that without more staff. So, we're working on kind of a comprehensive plan to figure out where we should be."

It will take roughly six months until the technology is fully functional, according to Bolinger.