Mitchell Kaminski
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Columbia police say officers ramping up enforcement downtown played a large role in a report showing nearly a 48% increase in downtown crime during the past year
That explanation came Monday after Race Matters, Friends raised concerns about how the Columbia Police Department’s downtown crime data was being presented during a Columbia City Council pre-council meeting.
CPD presented a report comparing crime from Sept. 16, 2025-Sept. 15, 2026, with the same period the previous year. The report showed 769 reported incidents downtown, up from 520, a 47.8% increase.
Citywide, reported crime decreased 1.8%, from 8,789 incidents to 8,629.
But Race Matters, Friends argued the downtown numbers need to be viewed in the context of increased police activity.
In a policy brief released Sunday, the group said crimes against people and property actually decreased 3.4%, from 178 incidents to 172. It also said core reportable crime increased 2.4%, arguing the larger increase was largely driven by police-initiated activity, including traffic stops, foot patrols and administrative checks.
Traci Wilson-Kleekamp, vice president of Race Matters, Friends, said she believes the public conversation about downtown safety has been shaped too heavily by fear rather than the underlying data.
“I think that fear mongering has really worked in our current political moment. And I don’t think that the city has had a very honest and authentic conversation with what the people want, because fear has caused people to make decisions not based on actual facts. So, I think that’s what was the driving force to me. I think [University of Missouri System President] Mun Choi has done a great job of scaring people that there’s homeless criminals and all this kind of really scary language,” Wilson-Kleekamp told ABC 17 News. “I think it’s worked, but it hasn’t made us safer. And actually there are parts of Columbia like the Clark Lane area where they’re having a lot of homicides, and they’re not directing their policing to where it can make the most difference.”
During Monday’s pre-council meeting, CPD emphasized that the department’s increased enforcement contributed to the rise in reported incidents, saying the numbers were not necessarily an indication that downtown had become “more dangerous.”
Of the 9,055 calls for service recorded by CPD through Sept. 15, 4,967 were initiated by police, while 4,088 came from the public.
The number of police-initiated calls through Sept. 15 already exceeds the totals recorded in 2023 and 2024. CPD had 3,673 self-initiated calls in 2023 and 3,507 in 2024. In 2025, police-initiated calls increased to 7,717 out of 13,128 total calls for service. CPD projects 7,422 police-initiated calls and 13,582 total calls for service by the end of 2026.
Columbia Police Chief Jill Schlude said the department increased its downtown enforcement after a fatal shooting downtown last year. The goal, she said, was to address lower-level offenses and disturbances in hopes of preventing more serious violence.
“When we had the bar owners meeting, the overwhelming consensus was that a lot of this was occurring in the majority of it was occurring outside on the streets, in the sidewalks. It wasn’t something that was coming from the businesses and then radiating outside necessary. So we were trying to be very focused on that aspect,” Schlude told ABC 17 News. “We mentioned there were instances where fights broke out, shootings would happen and the police were right there. And so we know a lot of these things are happening from what we call, like the outdoor partying that’s going on.”
That has led CPD to increase enforcement of offenses such as open containers, outdoor marijuana use, pedestrian violations and other disturbances. The department claims that enforcement has also contributed to a decline in property crime, particularly through increased enforcement of trespassing.
Despite the increase in reported crime, CPD said violent crime downtown has declined slightly.
The report showed 21 violent crimes downtown during the latest year-over-year period, down from 22. Citywide violent crime also decreased, falling from 276 incidents to 257.
CPD also reported a decline in confirmed shots-fired incidents. There have been 42 such incidents citywide so far in 2026, compared with 80 in all of 2025. Downtown has recorded two shots-fired incidents so far this year, compared with seven in both 2024 and 2025.
CPD clarified during Monday’s pre-council meeting that shot- fired calls only include incidents where they found evidence of a shots being fired or had multiple witnesses or video corroborating the report.
Schlude said the department considers the decline in downtown shootings a sign that the added enforcement is having an effect.
“I think for the piece of crime we’re trying to influence, which is really the violent-crime piece, I think we do feel like it has been we’ve, you know, shootings, thankfully this year have gone down to two so far this calendar year downtown. So I think that extra enforcement that we’re engaging in has really been helping move the lever there,” Schlude told ABC 17 News. “I think we’re on the right track. Our whole goal from the very beginning, once we started recognizing we were having an issue with more like gun-related crime, was to try to make it uncomfortable for people who should not be carrying firearms downtown to be carrying them.”
However, Schlude acknowledged the current level of downtown enforcement is not sustainable indefinitely. She said downtown crime has historically been seasonal, with factors including football season and the school year affecting activity.
CPD is divided into eight beats and ideally would have two officers assigned to each beat. The department is not fully staffed. During Monday’s meeting, CPD reported that their incoming recruiting class is lighter than they would have like but not due to the lack of applicants.
Schlude says the department had to turn a large number of unqualified applicants away during the vetting process. ‘
“We do a lot of prior employment history, prior residence history. We do tons of interviews. We do a computer voice stress and analysis where we try to make sure everything they put on their application was true and correct,” Schlude said. “We’re just calling a lot of people out for various things, and that’s what the process was intended to do. I’m not upset about that. I would just like to see some people, more people, get through it.
Schlude added the department has increased staffing in other areas, including its street crimes unit, which now handles investigations into nonfatal shootings.
“I think there’s a miscommunication or a misunderstanding that somehow us having to pull some resources downtown at different times means other areas of the city are completely left abandoned,” Schlude said. “We’re very fortunate that we have increased our staffing like in our street crimes unit. So nonfatal shootings are being assigned to that unit to investigate, which I think has really made an impact on arrests and tamping some of that crime down.”
Schlude said there is still a cost to deploying additional officers downtown, particularly around bar close, and acknowledged the department would be able to do more with additional staffing.
Wilson-Kleekamp said she wants city leaders to take a closer look at the data and question how enforcement decisions are being made, saying that certain areas in Columbia, like Clark Lane in the northeastern part of the city, are being ignored.
“I think that our council members have to start asking really hard questions and some of it’s going to be about race and some of it’s going to be about class. And they’re going to have to be able to navigate answering those questions and demanding evidence, not verbal responses,” Wilson-Kleekamp said.
CPD believes once it has a fully staffed dedicated downtown crime unit, both crime numbers and residents’ perceptions of crime downtown will improve
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