COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Columbia Police Chief Jill Schlude sat down with ABC 17 News on Friday to discuss changes the department is making to make downtown Columbia safer on the weekends.
On most Friday and Saturday nights, nearly half of CPD’s on-duty officers are placed downtown. Following a shooting last weekend on East Broadway, Schlude said the department is working with its law enforcement partners to up patrol presence.
“We do have some officers coming in on overtime and we requested assistance from the Boone County Sheriff’s Department, the MU Police Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol and they are all sending resources to us as well,” Schlude said.
The City of Columbia and University of Missouri released an action plan earlier this week, which included assistance patrolling downtown from the Boone County Sheriff’s Office, Missouri State Highway Patrol and MUPD.
CPD reported that last weekend there were approximately 11 officers in the downtown area. This weekend there is no football game, but MidMO Pride Fest and Greekfest are taking place near Columbia’s downtown and campus area.
Schlud said the number of officers that are available to assist downtown can be subject to change as calls for service throughout the city come in and impact police resources.
“Over the years, Columbia has just added more and more activities and festivals, which is really positive,” Schlude said. “It just puts a little bit more stress on us. So we try to get as many people down here as we can knowing that we still have to be able to to staff police officers in the rest of the city.”
CPD is working on implementing designated pull-off and pick-up zones for ride-share programs like Uber and Lyft. Pull-off zones would be marked by temporarily blocked meter parking that were tested on Sept. 19 and 20, while the designated pick-up zones will be tested Oct. 10 and 11, according to CPD.
Schlude hopes this will assist with the traffic flow downtown throughout the weekend evenings, but especially during the peak hours.
“The traffic pinch points, especially like hitting 10th and Broadway, those places are getting really congested when ride share is trying to come in,” Schlude said. “But we don’t want to deter people from using ride share, so we’ve got to figure out a better way to make ride share pickup available, but not congest traffic so much.”
Schlude said if the pick-up and pull-off points are successful they could become permanent.
“I’m a big believer in consistency and if you’re really trying to get people that might be intoxicated to do something it would be a lot easier to make it consistent so they always know, oh, I can go to these zones” Schlude said.
CPD is also working with Columbia/Boone County Health Department to address crowd control issues related to late-night food vendors.
“When I worked downtown, we had a couple hotdog carts and that was about it. So with the addition of those vendors, it also increases foot traffic in certain places,” Schlude said.
Schlude said this weekend will focus on health department officials educating the food vendors in an attempt to curb any resulting crowd control issues, but if the vendors don’t make the necessary changes a citation could follow.
“They’re going to talk to them about where they can and can’t be. Make sure they have the proper permits, kind of educate them about all the rules, like you can’t have music emanating from a food truck, things of that nature. Make sure that they have proper signage, lighting, whatever the requirements are,” Schlude said.
CPD is redeveloping a full-time dedicated downtown unit, but Schlude said resources don’t allow for it until summer 2026.
“When we get all the folks that are currently in training in the academy out and functioning on the street, which isn’t until next May or June, that’s when we think we can reach staff a true full time downtown unit,” Schlude said.
In the meantime the department has temporarily reassigned a patrol sergeant to focus full-time on overnight downtown operations.
“We wanted a consistent person who would, in the meantime, try to organize operations between now and frankly, when it gets really cold in the winter,” Schlude said. “But having that consistent person who is aware of all the issues going on, being able to communicate with the business owners down there.”
She explained that during the colder months the department will look at the need for downtown weekend staffing on a week by week basis as the chilly weather brings a lot less people to the area.
Right now, CPD is working with downtown business owners to have them sign a ‘Letter of Enforcement’ to try and curb crime in the area. Schlude said the department has made the process easier by taking it from a paper form to digital in an attempt to get it out to more business owners.
“Basically authorizes the police department to enforce trespassing on private property without the person that controls the business being there,” Schlude said. “There’s a link at the very top of our web page where businesses can go on, fill out that form, it’s good for a year.”
CPD has also upped its enforcement of misdemeanor offenses downtown in an effort to reduce violent incidents.