If Monday had been a typical work day, Columbus Police Officer Terrie Songer would have been juggling her cellphone and office phone, firing off emails and fielding questions from the media about a Sunday afternoon shooting on Fifth Street South. Instead, Songer spent the day knocking on doors, talking with residents and gathering information about the incident.
Songer, who has been with the department 16 years and has served as the public information officer for the past two years, learned Monday morning that she had been reassigned to the Comm-unity Relations Division as part of a strategy by Interim Chief Selvain McQueen to bring experienced officers back to the streets.
Songer is one of many longtime officers whose duties have changed. Last week, McQueen announced that with 75 percent of the department”s 69 officers having less than seven years of experience, he feels its critical to get experienced officers away from their desks and back into the community. In addition to following up on crimes, Songer and the other officers in the Community Relations Division will hand out crime-prevention pamphlets, organize neighborhood crime watches and speak to school children.
“Say, for instance, we have a bunch of auto burglaries,” McQueen said. “They”ll knock on doors, trying to gain intel as to what”s going on in that neighborhood … There”s a strong possibility with us going back, we can get into homes and gain a rapport with Columbus and its citizens.”
McQueen said he sees the four officers assigned to the division as “ambassadors of good will.”
The division, formerly headed by Capt. Fred Shelton, will now be led by Lt. Carroll Culpepper. Shelton, a 31-year veteran, has been reassigned to the patrol division.
Songer said the reassignment came as a surprise Monday morning, though she knew some of her job tasks would most likely change as a result of McQueen”s increased focus on community relations, but she didn”t realize she would no longer hold her public-information position at all.
“I hope in the future I have the opportunity to be the (public information officer again), because I sure enjoyed the job,” Songer said. “I”m just one of the many changes happening in the Columbus Police Department.”
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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