93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
Columbia’s mayor says one of the things she was most impressed with during the Chamber’s recent Wisconsin leadership visit is Madison’s co-response model. Mayor Barbara Buffaloe tells 939 the Eagle that Columbia is looking to do this right now.
“This is where we have both somebody who is a first responder responding with a mental health, behavioral health, some sort of a specialist, that is helping meet that person where they are right then. Because it might not be that they need to have a police response,” Buffaloe says.
Mayor Buffaloe was one of 70 Columbia-area elected officials and business leaders that made the trip to Madison. She likes the Madison model.
“It might just be that they need to get into one of our behavioral health clinics or even just de-escalating the situation. So they had some great lessons learned on that that as we implement our own system, I look forward to us doing in Columbia,” says Buffaloe.
Homelessness and college sports were other topics discussed on the trip to Madison, which has about 270,000 residents. It is home to both a state capital and the University of Wisconsin. Columbia Chamber of Commerce president Matt McCormick also made the trip, and is pleased with what they learned.
