Columbia Police Department rolls out online dashboards with shootings statistics

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — June 2nd is Gun Violence Awareness Day across the nation.

The Columbia Police Department is rolling out new information online in an effort to help stop local shootings.

Chief Skip Holbrook with the Columbia PD is announcing the rollout of two online dashboards that will show up-to-date shooting statistics across Columbia.

“The timing of introducing this website dashboard is not coincidental, it’s very intentional. We’re acknowledging gun violence victims here in our city and across our state and across our country,” Holbrook says.

According to Holbrook, one dashboard shows shooting statistics in the area including the location of the shots, and the age, sex, and race of the victims. Another dashboard shows Shotspotter data which detects and locates gunshots within a specific area.

In the last four weeks, Holbrook says 14 people have been shot in Columbia. Two of those were fatal shootings.

And year-to-date, Holbrook says there have been four people murdered by gunfire.

“Robbery and genuine small petty thieves tend to be the motive for most of these shootings,” says Holbrook, who believes the information within the dashboards may be shocking to people, and that’s on purpose.

Holbrook says ending gun violence will take everyone’s help.

“We want to share this data with the public so our public can understand where we are as a community. This is a shared responsibility. We’re oftentimes reacting to an act of violence and investigating it, but it’s a shared responsibility. We’ve got to do something to change the course of this trend….forever, ” says Holbrook.

City of Columbia Councilman and Reverend Ed McDowell also gave a call to action at today’s press conference.

“It’s up to us and it’s up to every member in this city of ours. To not only hear it, but to say something, and in saying something, doing something,” says McDowell.