Mayor outlines plan to curb homicides
More training for Columbus police officers who encounter people with mental-health problems and more bike patrols will be part of Mayor Andrew J. Ginther’s plan to improve police-community relations and curb the city’s growing homicide rate.
Ginther called Columbus’ 111 homicides so far this year “disturbingly high” at a news conference Wednesday, noting that police have no known motive or suspect for about half of those cases. Public Safety Director Ned Pettus said a lack of trust by
community members is one of the reasons that cases are difficult to solve.
“The faith and confidence of our residents in police is critical to our ability to keep our neighborhoods safe,” Ginther said at the Douglas Community Recreation Center in South Linden. “But the stark reality is many in our community say their faith is shaken, leading to strained relationships between the community and police.”
Ginther and members of his administration, including police Chief Kim Jacobs, outlined programs that the city has started to try to improve that relationship. Ginther said he has held roundtable discussions with people in the community over the past month to discuss the police force, including members of the citizens groups that have protested at City Hall over the past year.
About two-thirds of the city’s operating budget — about $577 million — is devoted to its police and fire divisions.
A pilot program in Linden that ran from May through July used officers on bike patrols to get to know residents better. Ginther said it helped curb violent crime and gather intelligence for cases. The number of assaults and aggravated assaults in the Linden neighborhood dipped 55 percent from the year before.
That program could be expanded to other neighborhoods, but Ginther declined to provide further details before the release of his 2018 budget later this month.
Jacobs also said that mental-health crisis training will be required of all Columbus police cadets. An additional 100 training slots a year will be opened in the police academy to train veteran officers as well, she said.
By 2020, the department expects to have trained about half its officers in crisis intervention. The city created a new lieutenant position to oversee crisis intervention this year.
The city also has assigned an officer to be a liaison to the Muslim and immigrant communities, Jacobs said, and it has hired community members to help it select new police recruits.
Ginther’s administration also highlighted the city’s youth-employment programs through the Department of Recreation and Parks and a response team from Columbus Public Health that is addressing trauma in neighborhoods hit by violence.
Asked whether the city would add more police officers in 2017, Ginther said, “this is bigger than just more police officers.”
“I would foresee that public safety would remain our top priority. We’ve invested in police classes consistently since 2009. That will remain a top priority,” he said. “I think what was clear and what we’re effectively trying to do today is help folks understand we can’t police our way out of this problem. Neighborhood and community violence, and the strained policecommunity relations, cannot be solved simply by law enforcement.”