COLUMBIA — A city of Columbia survey found residents who responded were dissatisfied with public safety services and felt unsafe around the city, according to a report released by the city.
The city said 855 households filled out the 2024 City of Columbia Community Survey, which assessed residents' satisfaction with city services to "ensure alignment between city priorities and resident feedback."
In comparison to the previous survey conducted in 2019, this year the City scored lower in all seven "public safety" categories.
Respondents indicated the city should address the quality of police and fire services, the quality of city streets, and the enforcement of city codes and ordinances, according to the report.
According to the report, respondents felt the city needs to increase its efforts to prevent crime and visibility of police downtown.
Sixty-two percent of respondents (excluding the "don't know" responses) said they are dissatisfied with the city's efforts to prevent crime, and forty-two percent said they felt unsafe walking in downtown Columbia.
At the pre-council meeting on Dec. 16, 2024, Columbia Police Chief Jill Schlude said that the department currently has 25 vacancies and is understaffed. And putting more officers downtown could use a third of the officers available during a shift.
"We have to shift staff downtown just to kind of keep order" Schulde said. "And so right now, when there's 12 people working and you got to shift a third of them just down here [downtown], just to be present, you're constantly robbing Peter to pay Paul."
The survey included 32 questions asking residents to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 their satisfaction and the quality of services provided by the city. Respondents were Columbia residents and were selected using a random sampling method.
The survey was conducted in August and September by ETC Institute on behalf of the city. The survey was sent out starting Aug. 5 and requested respondents return it within 10 days in an enclosed, postage-paid envelope. Respondents' answers remained confidential.
The city last conducted a survey pre-COVID-19 pandemic between December 2019 and January 2020.
