With the introduction of geographic policing in 2009, the Columbia Police Department has been steadily working toward the goal of efficient police services and creating a communal relationship between police officers and the citizens who they have vowed to protect.
“Being assigned to a specific beat is the central theme to geographic policing — that is being assigned to one area, getting to know the people, know the problems in that particular area and working towards making that beat better for those who reside there,” CPD Patrol Commander Capt. Brad Nelson said in an email.
A CPD map differentiating the department’s beats and sectors is used to interpret the divisions created by geographical policing. The most recently updated public version of the map was constructed in 2010 and is available online, but that map might slightly differ due to the change within the areas throughout the years.
Large areas within the city are divided into four smaller patrol sections called sectors. The map represents the sectors with alphabetical lettering. The four sectors are also divided into even smaller areas called beats. There are no more than three beats per sector and they are numerically labeled on the map.
“The number of officers in each beat are assigned based on number of calls in that beat,” CPD spokeswoman Latisha Stroer said.
Police officers are assigned to a specific beat and their continuation in that beat is based on how they perform.
“By requiring officers to stay in their assigned beats, unless dispatched elsewhere, it will allow officers to get to know their beats and the customers in them much better,” Sgt. Jill Schlude said.
Schlude also noted that the number of police officers assigned to every beat differs throughout a day.
“We presently have four different start times for shifts, which obviously results in overlapping,” Nelson said. “We have a yearly bid system in which officers bid on what shift they would like to work based on seniority. Commanders attempt to keep the same officers in the same beat unless the officer asks for a different beat or there is a departmental reason why officers would be moved to a different beat.”
The patrol division for CPD consists of one patrol captain, three patrol lieutenants, 13 patrol sergeants and 78 patrol officers, who must be divided and assigned to the various areas, beats and sectors within the city of Columbia.
In a college town with more than 100,000 residents, efficient police assignments to allocate the demands of the different beats and sectors can be hard to achieve, Nelson said. He and Schlude said they believe that more officers and police stations could be used to better implement geographic policing.
“The city has grown to a size that does not allow for quick travel from one end of town to another,” Schlude said. “The weakness at this point is that we are still based out of a central police station, which requires officers to leave their beats often to process prisoners and complete paperwork, but we are currently in the process of exploring precinct stations for other areas of the city to help remedy this.”
Beats 70 and 70D represent MU, which is located in the D sector. Some of the unique problems that police officers must commonly address in this area are issues involving alcohol and peace disturbances.
“The most difficult areas to patrol would probably be Beat 20 due to a larger number of violent crimes, and beats 70 and 70D due to the sheer number of calls and people that frequent the beats on a nightly basis,” Nelson said.
Despite the range in difficulty, all beats are monitored and assigned in an unbiased fashion, he said.
“With 80-plus officers assigned to the patrol division, there is no ‘one’ favorite beat,” Nelson said.
