The Columbia Police Department is making plans to expand its program that helps those battling addiction to also include domestic violence victims.
Police Chief Michael Kelly told aldermen Tuesday that reviewing the statistics from last year, property crime has decreased, but violent crime has increased. Kelly said a lot of the violent crimes were centered around domestic violence.
“We know there is no amount of police cars we can put on the road, police officers that we put into the community that will lower that particular type crime. What we can do is have a victim-centered approach where we reach out to those victims and try to stop that loop of domestic violence from happening,” he said.
Kelly told the board if one would review the CAD system of calls received for violent crimes over the past year, a lot of them it was not the first time the police had been to that residence. He said they were places the officers already knew about and had visited more than once.
“What we are doing is going after those victims and going to use The Mercy Project to do that,” Kelly said.
Kelly asked the board for permission to send Mallory Belk, Danielle Barber and April Prine to domestic violence training in Laurel. Belk, Barber and Prine, while employed through the police department, are also volunteers for The Mercy Project, a program through the police department that offers help and direction in receiving treatment for addictions.
Kelly is wanting to expand the program to be able to reach out to domestic violence victims. The only cost to the police department was the transportation for the day. The board unanimously approved.
