Category Archives: Video

Survey shows 90 percent satisfaction rate toward Columbia Police Department

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Columbia Police say results of a “customer service” survey launched last spring show a satisfaction rate of more than 90 percent. Reporters Samantha Sunne and Youyou Zhou explain how the survey was conducted and how well it represents the community.

“Customer satisfaction” survey part of Columbia police PR push

By Samantha Sunne and Youyou Zhou

On Saturday, Dec. 3, when Columbia Police Officer Curtis Brown issued a warning to a driver who had run a stop sign in north Columbia, his speech sounded like something he’s done for years.

“Slow down, stop,” he said through the pickup truck window. “That’s what it’s there for, alright?”

But when Brown moved on to the second part of his speech, it was something new that was added this past spring. He handed the woman a card advertising an online survey with questions about her “satisfaction” about being pulled over.

“Be honest,” Brown said. “If you think I was a jerk, then you tell them I was a jerk. If you thought I was being nice, tell them I was nice.”

Under a directive from Chief Ken Burton, Columbia police officers have been handing out the survey cards since last April. According to Burton, the surveys will be used indefinitely as a way of providing police with feedback on the quality of their service. In other words, it’s a “customer satisfaction” survey.

So far, results show an overall satisfaction rate of 87 percent. Ninety-two percent of respondents said the officer was “helpful and polite,” and 91 percent said the officer answered their questions and kept them informed. Seventy-eight percent were satisfied with police response time.

Right now, 183 people have responded to the survey. That’s a small number when compared with the 90,000 interactions police say they have with citizens each year.

Mary Ratliff, president of the NAACP Columbia branch, said in her recent interactions with police, not only were the officers rude, but she was not given a survey card.

“If you’re handing out cards, you can give the cards to whomever you want to give them to,” she said. “And you can not give them to whomever you don’t want to give them to.”

Burton said a lack of responses is a major flaw in the survey program so far.
“I’m a little concerned that we’re not getting enough of the cards out there,” he said. “You always have a low response, but it does require somebody to make an extra effort (to take the survey), so it’s not really surprising either.”

Ratliff said she was running late one day to a Sunday school class when she was speeding. When an officer stopped her and issued her a ticket, she said he took as long as he possibly could, keeping her waiting for at least 10 minutes.
“The survey comes back and indicates, ‘oh, everybody is happy with everything,’” she said. “That is not the case.”

The survey asks how a person has interacted with police and whether they were arrested, a victim or a witness. So far, more than half of the respondents have answered “other.”

Though you’d think that those arrested would not be happy with police, a conversation with a man recently arrested on domestic assault charges shows otherwise.

Byron Brown is in the Boone County Jail and awaiting his trial. Though he said he was falsely arrested and denies the charge of attacking his girlfriend, he had positive things to say about the officers who arrested him, and said he had no complaints.

“They did their job,” he said.

Burton said he wants every citizen to be treated as a customer because as taxpayers, they are paying for the police department’s services. But instituting this new philosophy of customer satisfaction is slow going, he said.

“You make changes to attitudes over a period of time, and you tell employees that it is important,” he said. “We will be responsive to people who pay the bills.”

See the survey results:


Document source: Columbia Police Department

Humane Society fights stereotype, offers pit bulls for adoption

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More than a third of Missouri cities restrict the ownership of pit bulls. The Central Missouri Humane Society in Columbia is breaking new ground by making pit bulls available for adoption.

Pit bulls labor under false stereotype

By Samantha Sunne and Youyou Zhou

For many, pit bulls evoke an image of a furious animal straining against its chains, teeth bared and jaw slobbering. But some dog experts, such as Carol Leech, director of the Fayette Pet Adoption and Welfare Service, say pit bulls are no more dangerous than any other kind of dog.

In Fayette, Mo., where a citywide ban on pit bulls was instituted in 2009, many of the dogs’ owners were being irresponsible and neglectful, Leech said, failing to train or socialize their dogs.

“The majority of pit bulls we had in town were mistreated,” she said.

Columbia trainer Robin Nuttall said breed-specific ordinances like that one are unclear and inefficient.

“Any dog can be dangerous,” Nuttall said. “All have 42 teeth and they can all use them.”

Nuttall said one reason for the misconception is that dogs are misidentified as pit bulls when they bite people.

“Animal control officers and police officers are often not people who have spent years in dogs and around the dog show world,” Nuttall said. “Misidentification is the
rule, not the exception.”

Jessica Schlosser owns a pit bull. She said two of her friends have been bitten by dogs. Both times, Schlosser said, the dogs were presumed to be pit bulls even though the breeds weren’t really known.

“Not to say that pit bulls have never done anything wrong, ever,” Schlosser said. “But there are also Labs that have bitten, Pomeranians that have bitten…It’s just that unfortunately, this particular breed is the one glorified as the ‘vicious dog.’”

Still, the group is characterized by muscularity and aggressiveness, and tends to be fiercely loyal to its owners, Leech said. They were originally bred to bait bulls on farms, and later to fight in dogfights.

And yet, though they are especially strong, Schlosser said they’re not actually predisposed to be vicious.

The American Temperament Test Society compares the friendliness and aggressiveness of different breeds. About 85 percent of the pit bulls tested passed its temperament test – roughly the same as the rate for golden retrievers.

Like any dog, pit bulls need training and socialization, Nutall said.

“These days the breed has become the ‘bad dog breed du jour,’” she said. “But they are not inherently dangerous.”

Abnormally dry season makes hay harder to find

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Some mid-Missouri farmers are struggling to buy or grow hay to store up for the winter. Unusual weather conditions cut production in Missouri and raised the prices of hay grown elsewhere. View the full package on KOMU.com»

Abnormally dry season makes hay harder to find

By Samantha Sunne and Lukas Udstuen

COLUMBIA – Alpaca farmer Gary Licklider is still looking for more alpaca food to sustain his animals through winter.

Like many other mid-Missouri animals, alpacas eat hay. But because of an abnormally hot and dry summer, hay is becoming harder to find in this state and others.

“I’ve probably got about half of what I need to get me through winter,” Licklider said. “So I probably need at least another 100 bales to get me through the winter, and that’s a hope and a prayer that we don’t’ have the snow cover and hard winter like we had last year.”

Licklider said this was the first time in 10 years he’s had trouble finding enough hay to get through winter.

Tommy Sallee, a statistician with the Department of Agriculture, said the problem began around July. It became so hot that grass growth slowed, meaning farmers had to dip into their hay supplies earlier than usual. Then, because they couldn’t cut new hay from the grass, hay production decreased as well.

This happened to a greater extreme in other states such as Texas, which were hit with exceptional drought, according to the USDA.

The low hay production coupled with an increased demand have driven up hay prices in Missouri this summer.

Howard County cattle farmer Jason Rimmel says under normal conditions $35 is a fair price for a round bale of hay. Recently, he says they’ve had offers from Texan farmers for as much as $100 per bale.

“Someone tells you $100 per bale, they’ll tell you you’re nuts,” Rimmel said. “I still think they’re nuts – but if you need it, you need it.”

So far, the impact of the shortage has not affected the prices of consumer goods.

See the full package on KOMU.com»