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Columbia City Council Enables Funding for Increased Community Policing

Second Ward Councilman and co-chair for the Mayor’s Task Force on Community Violence Michael Trapp hopes that $150,000 approved by the Columbia City Council for the 2016 fiscal year budget will go towards the creation of a violence interruption program for the city.

Trapp said the program is still in the research stage, but he explained the program would use people who are not police officers.

“Violence interruption is kind of a new type of community health-worker who identifies the problem, who’s likely to catch this contagion that we call violence and then look for ways to find other ways to manage those situations and deal with those folks,” Trapp said.

The council also allocated $10,000 towards community policing to improve the relationships between Columbia police officers and residents.

The Mayor’s Task Force on Community Violence recommended both community policing and violence interruption programs last year.

Laura Nauser, Fifth Ward Councilwoman and also co-chair for the Mayor’s Task Force on Community Violence, pushed for the funding and said it will provide police officers more opportunities to interact with their community in a positive way.

“I think that this will give them an opportunity to have a small funding stream to be able to implement the full spectrum of community policing. Not just being able to get out there and make that positive personal connection, but to go deeper and to really build those relationships with people in specific communities.” Nauser said.

The council will meet two more times in September to discuss the 2016 budget before the fiscal year begins on October first.

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