If perception is reality, then crime in Columbia is rampant.
Tribune file photo Boone County sheriff’s officers photograph a crime scene where one victim was shot July 23, 2010, at the Boone County Fairgrounds. Multiple shots were fired, and one victim was taken to University Hospital after suffering a gunshot wound to the buttocks. Witnesses on the scene reported a group of 10 to 15 individuals involved in a fight, which led to the gun shots being fired.That's what many residents — and some in Columbia's neighboring counties — believe.
Whether they rarely visit Columbia or call it home, people's opinions of life here are, at times, shaped by those who say they can be trusted the most. Local media outlets give readers and viewers the stories they think are most worthy of attention. But coverage styles differ, as do perceptions about Columbia's crime rates.
Soon after his election in 2010, Mayor Bob McDavid remembers being approached by two participants at a Central Missouri mayors' conference. The pair of small-town leaders said they perceived Columbia as a dangerous city; they had seen persistent media reports of burglaries, robberies, thefts and assaults. They asked McDavid how the situation got so bad.
"Are they seeing bigger-city problems they don't see in their smaller towns? I don't know," McDavid said. "But when it's your community they are talking about, you start looking for answers."
Crime in Columbia increased by 10.4 percent between 2001 and 2010 — not a significant spike when considering the city's population grew 28.4 percent and the economy tanked.
Crime rose again last year, mostly in terms of thefts and larcenies. That's partly because Columbia is a retail hub, attracting would-be shoplifters from surrounding communities, Columbia police Chief Ken Burton said. But violent crimes last year totaled 417 reported incidents, down from the 2007 peak, when 476 incidents were reported.
A recent string of gunfire incidents put residents on alert, but Burton stressed only a handful of residents were responsible for the stir.
While eating at Kentucky Fried Chicken with his son recently, David Petersheim said he couldn't help but wonder how safe they were across the street from the Chucky E. Cheese's restaurant where shots were fired last month.
He typically doesn't think about crime until he watches the news or reads reports about robberies and shootings — then his guard goes up.
Media influence his perception of crime in Columbia, he said, though he's not sure why.
"I know they blow everything the crap out of proportion," he said. "That's the weird part."
Kevin Roberts moved from Columbia to Ashland three years ago and is happy to make the drive. He said he's like many Ashland residents who enjoy their small town because it feels safe.
"I leave my doors unlocked during two-week vacations," he said. "You can't do that in Columbia."
Columbia is a small and oversaturated media market because of the multiple news stations, newspapers, radio stations and hundreds of University of Missouri journalism students requesting interviews as class assignments, Burton said.
"Our citizens are bombarded with it," Burton said, referring to crime coverage. "It tends to make them think it's a crime wave."
The coverage might be to blame for Columbia's lower-than-average satisfaction with police protection. About 69 percent of residents surveyed last year were satisfied with the protection Columbia police provide — 6 percent lower than the Missouri average and 4 percent lower than the national average.
McDavid said he was alarmed when he met recently with the president of the MU Student Association, who was worried about burglaries around East Campus. Students might hear about an incident in their neighborhoods, but when they're reminded of crime every time it's reported, McDavid fears the city could get a bad reputation among families of MU students.
"It's extremely important that students feel safe and parents feel safe when they send their kids here," he said. "If a student representative feels it's important enough to bring to my attention, I'm concerned."
In newsrooms across the country, editors and directors meet every day to determine what events deserve the attention of readers and viewers. Decisions to place stories on the front page of a newspaper or at the top of a broadcast hour are weighed differently at each news organization, said Stephanie Craft, an associate journalism professor at MU.
"It's well-established that the stories the media highlight set the agenda for public opinion," she said. "When you poll the public, the response is the content analysis of what the media tells you."
Couch potatoes are more at risk of perceiving the world as a violent place, Craft said. It's called the "mean world syndrome," a phenomenon in which violence-related media content convinces viewers the world is more dangerous than it is.
If TV can influence people's fashion decisions and what they buy at the grocery store, it also can influence how they view downtown Columbia after a broadcast about a shooting, Craft said.
An International Communication Association study in 2003 warned that local news broadcasts rely heavily on sensational coverage of crime and other mayhem, and that coverage increases fears. But crime-oriented coverage also finds success among viewers. And when that happens, it's hard to argue broadcasters shouldn't give people what they want, Craft said.
That's why she hesitates to point the finger solely at media.
"Their operation makes financial sense," she said. "People choose to watch it. They bear some of the responsibility, too. People should be literate about media and know how news is made."
The old slogan "if it bleeds, it leads" isn't always applicable: Political, community and government stories draw priority, too.
In the Central Missouri TV market — where KOMU, KMIZ and KRCG compete — a good school or government story about taxes fares just as well, said Stacey Woelfel, KOMU's news director.
"If it's unusual or shocking enough, we'll lead with it," he said.
Woelfel used the Steven Rios case as an example of a crime story shocking enough to merit major coverage. Rios was a former Columbia police officer convicted in 2008 of murdering a 23-year-old MU student.
"Viewer interest goes high on that," he said. "When viewer interest is so high, you put resources into it."
Stories that affect people's lives draw viewers, and people are capable of discerning whether they're affected, Woelfel said. Many crime stories, for instance, involve drugs. Viewers who recognize they won't be robbed or assaulted during a drug deal because they don't do drugs want more substance in their news, he said.
But those cases can generate wider interest when they have shocking details, and those are the stories that rise to the top of KOMU newscasts.
"Sure, there are assaults and strong-arm robberies," Woelfel said. "I can't say we never lead with it, but unless you are the robber or victim, you are not affected by it. That's not a threat to people in their comfortable homes. We try to focus on public safety."
When it comes to reporting stories based on police department news releases about arrests or criminal activity, "it looks like something people should care about," Woelfel said. But "I like public policy stories. I know they take more time and effort, but they perform just as well."
KMIZ, on the other hand, prioritizes weather and crime in its broadcasts. The station made the decision to take that approach about four years ago, News Director Curtis Varns said.
He has heard criticism about the station's crime focus, but he contends viewers recognize the depth of reporting and that its coverage ties to a common theme and focus.
The economy, he said, has wedged its way into editorial decisions in a station trying to stay competitive.
"You will probably recognize what we won't cover," Varns said. "Not that we are looking for any particular angle. Over time, we have come to understand what people consider news. People understand the news value" of crime.
At the Tribune, crime news has to be major before it gets front-page placement, Managing Editor Jim Robertson said.
"I've always been sensitive to the fact of presenting perspective with crime news," he said. "Not overselling it. That's why we don't get a lot of lesser crime stuff in prominent positions."
At the same time, people are interested in crime news, Robertson said. "So you don't want to underreport it, but you don't want to over-report it, either."
Regardless of placement, arrest reports are one of the best-read features in the newspaper, he said.
"It's our job to report crime, and it's our readers' job to react," he said. "If they are holding city government's feet to the fire" on crime rates, "then so be it."
Sometimes solving crimes requires police to "use the media smartly," Burton said. That means knowing when to keep information under wraps and when to make it public, he said.
Take gang activity. For decades, Columbia police denied gangs were in Columbia.
Then, in 2010, police acknowledged gang members were believed to be feuding with a local family after a number of gunfire incidents, including one during which an 18-year-old Kansas City man was shot at the Boone County Fair.
Sgt. Jill Schlude, a longtime officer turned police spokeswoman, said she doesn't recall why the department did not talk about gang activity, but it was a known directive. The department now is more upfront about gangs while also trying to not unnecessarily scare people who might see gang-related violence from larger cities on television.
"You cannot just throw that word out there and not give it any context," Schlude said. "I think that was the hesitation on the part of the previous administration. They didn't want the public going 'Oh my God, we've got gangs' and have everybody living in fear because that's not what it is."
Loosely organized groups of young people in Columbia meet the statutory definition of a gang, but they aren't the strongly organized groups found in larger cities, she said.
Police do not name gangs, however, because they don't want to give them street credibility, Schlude noted.
So far, she thinks the media have done a good job of reporting on gang activity.
"My fear was we'd go from zero to 60, and all of a sudden, everybody assumes we're living in south-central Los Angeles, and we're not," Schlude said. "The media has done a good job of balancing it, and" there's "a lot of recognition by the media that we're talking about younger kids with lower levels of organization."
The police department also has made some organizational changes referred to as "proactive patrol." That's not a new unit; rather, officers and units are just rearranged to patrol certain neighborhoods, Schlude said.
Part of the tactic involves sending media regular reports of all arrests made, no matter how insignificant the crime might seem.
Schlude said that public relations effort was in response to daily requests for arrest information from KMIZ and, to lesser extents, KOMU and local newspapers.
"I think, in the end, the communication is good," she said. "We definitely want the public to know we take it seriously and we're out there doing something. So it meets two purposes: trying to let people know and trying to be responsive to media requests."
Reach Brennan David at 573-815-1718 or e-mail bpdavid@columbiatribune.com. Copyright 2012 Columbia Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. This article was published on page D4 of the Sunday, March 11, 2012 edition of The Columbia Daily Tribune with the headline "CRIME IN COLUMBIA: " Click here to Subscribe.