Columbia Second Ward Council Member Vera Elwood and Office of Violence Prevention Administrator D'Markus Thomas-Brown spoke at the "Let's Talk Local" discussion Tuesday, focusing on actions to promote safety across Columbia.
The public discussion explained the mission of the Office of Violence Prevention, and included a presentation from Thomas-Brown regarding what steps the city is taking to reduce community violence.
Thomas-Brown mentioned how poverty and crime go hand-in-hand, and in order to reduce the amount of violent crime, there must be some understanding of the situation the less fortunate are in.
"What is it like to function - in fight or flight?" Thomas-Brown said. "And then you ask me to turn it off? All of that leads to violence."
He got emotional when speaking about the continuing cycle of violence one can experience.
"If you don't understand the mentality of someone having to live like that - 'when I was three I had to fight for food and if I didn't fight and beat my cousin up and draw blood I didn't get to eat' - and then you ask me at 16 to not choose violence?" Thomas-Brown said. "That was survival - you don't understand - if you don't understand it you cannot interrupt the cycle of violence."
Thomas-Brown explained his department's violence prevention plan. The plan is called the "Trauma-Informed — Community-Oriented System of Care" approach. This method focuses on prevention, intervention and long-term community enrichment.
Thomas-Brown, along with Elwood and Columbia Police Chief Jill Schlude, answered questions from the public as well.
"So much of what we do and train on now involves crisis intervention," Schlude said. "It's more like just a way of doing a police officer's job."
She also talked about what staffing looks like at CPD.
"There's really - how many positions we can hire right now - which is how many total positions were allotted which is 185 sworn officers," Schlude said. "We're very close to having that number filled so the next conversation is how many more police officers do we need to add to really do the type of policing I think the community's expecting from us?"
Schlude gave a prediction as to when she thinks the increased law enforcement presence downtown will end.
"At least till the end of football season, probably till Christmas," Schlude said.