Columbia seeks answers to violent crime through data analysis

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The City of Columbia is working with the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform to find the reason for violent crime in the city.

The Office of Violence Prevention Advisory Committee met Thursday morning to discuss what data is necessary for the institute to begin its analysis on gun violence.

The institute wants demographic data for the suspect and victim in both deadly and non-deadly shootings.

The city will have to pay more than $290,000 for the research, according to city council documents. The institute will also analyse which organizations are active in community violence intervention and how they serve people in need.

Office of Violence Prevention Administrator D'Markus Thomas-Brown said data from research projects on gun violence and Columbia's resource landscape will show city leaders where violence intervention and prevention are needed.

The institute would need crime data from the past one to two years, Thomas-Brown said. The results would be available within four to six months once the institute receives Columbia's data.

"I'm really looking to that as a fix -- as a roadmap to the fix to be able to see what's going on with our situations with youth violence here in Columbia," Thomas-Brown said.

Within the first three weeks of 2026, Columbia has seen five shootings, two deadly, and at least two of those incidents involved juveniles.

Check back for updates.