Columbia police chief says work to be done after reviewing latest vehicle stops report
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Columbia Police Chief Geoff Jones said while progress has been made there is still work to be done to address bias in policing and traffic stops during a meeting with the city council Monday.
Chief Jones spoke briefly with the city council during a review of the latest vehicle stops report during Monday night's council meeting.
The review of the report comes after the Missouri Attorney General's Office corrected data last week regarding the Columbia Police Department.
The latest traffic stops report from the police department reveals that 6,414 drivers were pulled over by officers in Columbia. The data shows police stopped 2,127 Black drivers and 3,945 white drivers.
Police conducted 379 searches during traffic stops of Black drivers, according to the report. Another 281 stops involved contraband.
In comparison, police conducted 321 searches of white drivers during traffic stops. Data from the report shows 201 stops involved contraband.
To minimize the disparity in stops, the Columbia Police Department said officers will no longer train K-9s to find marijuana. K-9s trained to find the drug will not warrant a search without other probable causes.
"When I became Chief, I said that I would address concerns about biased policing, I said I would not police to a number, and that stands true today, I said I would work with a committee of community members, to hear their experience and their recommendations for better policy, training, performance expectation, accountability, and data review, that's what we've done together, that's what we've done together, and that's what we will continue to do," said Jones.
The city council made the decision to discuss the CPD traffic report on June 21st during a work session.
Chief Jones said, "We're excited for the opportunity to just be able to present what we have done, what we plan to do, and what some of the obstacles have been for us, and to get some input so that we can move forward."
The meeting will give them the opportunity to discuss more in-depth with the community what needs to be addressed and what has already been done.
