The Columbia Police Department will add six new positions for the upcoming fiscal year, if approved in the final budget, as public safety remains a priority for city officials.
The number of new positions is 45 police roles fewer than requested by Police Chief Jill Schlude.
Schlude spoke Saturday at a budget workshop between city staff and Columbia City Council members on a denied request for 51 new police officers.
They were among 75 positions denied, while 20 were approved citywide, according to staff presentations at what was the third workshop of the week on the fiscal year 2026 budget.
This year, City Manager De’Carlon Seewood requested that department heads propose a 3% decrease in their budget requests.
Seewood said he encouraged department heads to seek personnel to meet needs regardless of whether the budget could handle the requests.
“For the longest time our mindset has been don’t ask for anything because we’re not going to fund anything,” he said. “So departments have gotten used to not really asking for a whole lot.”
In the past couple of years that attitude has changed, he said. Now, department heads are more likely to honestly state the staffing needs they have to do the jobs they are expected to do, Seewood said.
“We know that we can’t fund everything people ask for, but we (can) at least start having those conversations,” he said.
Schlude said she recognized the bid for that many new officers wasn’t achievable in one year but comes as she outlines her future employment plans for the force.
“We felt like it was important to start asking for what we need, even if that’s ‘Oh my gosh,’ because you all can’t make decisions if we don’t ask for what we need,” Schlude said.
Schlude said the number of officers requested is a way to lay the groundwork to build up the police force to where she believes it should be.
Her requests come from a need for more officers as the city’s population increases, as well as conversations among command staff to fill out the force to meet demands.
“We sat down as a command staff, and mapped out, OK, where do we think we should be today, to do the things we are being consistently asked to do,” Schlude said.
Schlude made the request knowing that the number was aspirational.
“There is no way we are getting 51 police officers in one budget cycle, that’s not going to happen,” Schlude said.
Council members welcomed the ambitious request, echoing Schlude’s push for departments to ask for what they need, not just for what is available.
“I appreciate the change in approach here,” Third Ward councilperson Jacque Sample said. “Seeing what is not approved does let us to identify trends.”
Finance Director Matthew Lue estimated that the total cost for 51 new officers would be about $4.6 million for pay and benefits.
Schlude noted that another strategy she has is moving some positions now filled by sworn officers to civilian positions, freeing officers up for police work.
