COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – In a few months, the Columbus Division of Police will change how its officers are spread across the city.
The division currently splits the city into five coverage zones. With the change, there will be six.
Leaders with the division said this is happening for a few different reasons, one of which is the current maps split some neighborhoods between zones, and they don’t want that to be the case.
“We’ll see, man,” said resident Derrick Russell. “Everything’s hopefully for the good; that, you know, it’ll work.”
Russell is open to any idea if it will make the community safer. He works with children and young adults in Linden, getting them involved in positive activities.
“Build relationships within the community,” Russell said. “I think it can work if we take that approach.”
With the current Columbus Division of Police zone map, the Linden neighborhood is split up across multiple zones. On April 30, police will be using the new map, with one more zone than the current map.
Use the slide on the image below to compare current patrol zones to the new patrol zones going into effect on April 30.
Columbus Police Cmd. Mark Lang said the new map keeps neighborhoods, including Linden, in the same zone.
“When we are bringing neighborhoods together as we see them, better aligning with neighborhoods how they see themselves, I think it gives us that same perspective they have and we can provide better service,” Lang said.
“With everybody being in one place and everybody’s not sporadic, then you can build better rapport and relationships,” Russell said.
According to Lang, the division also hopes the change will allow community member to get to know their patrol officers better, improve response time, and try to balance the workload among officers across zones.
“If officers have fewer calls for service they’re responsible for every day, it certainly helps with their wellness,” he said. “And it also gives them more time to spend with each call, so more responsive to the community.”
A commander for the new zone has not been picked yet, something Lang said will happen closer to the April date.
