JCPD expands community resource officer program to assist homeless population
Mitchell Kaminski
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Jefferson City Police Department will add a second community resource officer to enhance support for the city’s homeless population and bolster mental health outreach efforts.
Jefferson City’s current community resource officer focuses on mental health outreach and connecting unhoused individuals with available resources. They also work to balance the needs of the unhoused with the concerns of residents and businesses.
During Thursday’s Public Safety Committee meeting, Police Chief Eric Wilde announced that the department had named a second community resource officer to address the increasing number of mental-health-related calls.
“We noticed over time that increased calls for people with mental-health issues had been increasing for years,” Wilde said. “So we had a unique opportunity to appoint someone as a community resource officer who was tasked with going out, interacting with those individuals, and getting them directed to resources before they had the opportunity to commit a crime or become the victim of a crime.”
During the meeting, Wilde said that the current volume of mental-health calls is right there with traffic accidents.
“We were getting a lot of positive results in the first year. Our community resource officer service, over 480 people in our community, and we were finding that about 70% of those that we lined up resources for, we weren’t seeing them again,” Wilde said. “So we thought that we have enough need in this community to add a second officer too, to that effort.”
The addition reflects Jefferson City’s ongoing efforts to provide more resources for its homeless population. Last June, the Jefferson City Council approved a resolution creating a task force to focus on homelessness. The task force includes representatives from law enforcement, community recreation, legal professionals, and local organizations such as Room at the Inn and Habitat for Humanity.
“The homeless population that we have is concentrated in downtown, which is Ward 2. And that’s just because I think that’s where most of the resources are. And that’s where in the winter there is the shelters,” Ward 2 Councilman Mike Lester said. “A big component of being homeless is a lot of the individuals have mental-health issues and Officer (Marika) Hit has been a great resource for them (and) for the city to help the individuals hook up with resources that might help them and to certainly (in as many) cases as possible, keep them out of being in jail, which doesn’t help anybody.”
Officer Marika Hit, named Jefferson City’s first community resource officer, has held the position for a little more than a year. Hitt also serves on the task force.
During one of the taskforce’s meetings on Oct. 10, Hitt said from Oct. 1, 2023-Oct. 1 2024, there were 481 cases of unhoused individuals being assisted with mental health resources.
Brian Vogeler, director of the Center of Hope Shelter, praised the role of the community resource officer program in assisting those in need.
“I’m seeing individuals who have been unhoused and dealing with issues since I started are now housed and now doing good and, you know, and maintaining and things like that. So I think it’s really good for Jeff City,” Vogeler said.
“The police kind of help us handle some situations. And where, previously, it might have been a situation where they might have, you know, thrown an individual in jail. So now they can send the officer down and talk to them a lot of times, get them help, but they’re needy. And so I think it’s a very valuable resource,” Vogeler said.
Wilde said the current demands in Jefferson City were stretching Hit thin, prompting the decision to add a second community resource officer. Vogeler noted that since the introduction of the community resource officer, there has been a significant positive change in the community, and he believes a second officer will further benefit the city.
“Jeff City has some individuals who may have mental-health concerns. And I think before, they wanted to try to find the best outcome for them. But they really weren’t sure what that was. And then the police force added the resource officer and it just really it really did make a huge difference because those individuals who were needing that extra help,” Vogeler said. “Because sometimes you don’t always know where the resources are or how to get a hold of those resources.”