While Columbia has seen several recent high-profile murders, city manager De’Carlon Seewood says our community is a safe one. He tells 939 the Eagle’s “CEO Roundtable” that Columbia has a great police department.
“When you look at our ability to deal with, when we do have those unfortunate incidents where we have a homicide, our clearance rate is phenomenal,” Seewood says.
Seewood tells listeners that CPD officers “work their tails off” to provide top-notch service to Columbia.
City manager Seewood has high praise for outgoing Police chief Geoff Jones, who will retire this summer, after more than 24 years with CPD. Seewood says Chief Jones will be difficult to replace.
“We have a chief who really believed in the community, who took ownership of what was being done. And you know he worked hard. And he carried his heart for the community on his sleeve,” says Seewood.
Chief Jones will retire on August 1.
“It’s going to be hard to find someone who does that who actually wants to be part of the community, wants to make sure that as operations are occurring that it has that community mindset,” Seewood says.
You can listen to Fred Parry’s full interview with city manager Seewood here.
