Columbia Police Chief Randy Boehm said an internal review shows officers who responded to a disturbance at Columbia Mall acted appropriately "under difficult circumstances" when they handcuffed and arrested a mother who resisted orders to exit the building.

Boehm

"In the end, our officers were asked to deal with an extremely challenging situation, and all things considered, they did a very good job," he said. "We found no evidence that our officers handled it poorly."

Alva Scott was trying to reunite with her young children when she was taken into custody late last year during a volatile incident in the mall’s Cafe Court involving between 100 and 200 young people.

Police officers trying to contain the disturbance told Scott to leave the building, but she resisted, telling them her children, ages 2 and 8, were waiting for her unattended nearby.

Columbia attorney David Tyson Smith said Scott, his client, had received permission from a mall security guard to enter the Cafe Court area to retrieve her teenage son and his friend. She was trying to return to her younger children and leave the mall when officers stopped her.

Scott resisted their orders and an officer wrestled her to the floor, handcuffing her. She was eventually arrested and charged with trespassing, assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest.

The incident was one of several involving Columbia police and black residents described in April to a U.S. Department of Justice official during a meeting with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Scott is black and people at the meeting questioned whether police would have handled the situation differently had she been white.

Boehm said 40 people were interviewed for the internal review about the mall incident, which began after a fight broke out between several young people in Cafe Court. Mall security guards and several off-duty police officers helping at the mall tried to contain the disturbance, but it continued to escalate. Eventually, mall management thought it best to close the mall early and called Columbia police for help.

"Ultimately, we had every police officer on duty at the mall," said Boehm, estimating 20 officers responded. However, getting the crowd to exit the building was difficult, Boehm said, because some people resisted.

"It was an extremely difficult situation to deal with," he said.

Last month, charges against Scott, who had no prior criminal record, were dropped. Boone County Assistant Prosecutor Connie Sullivan said she dismissed the charges because Scott apologized to the arresting officer and Sullivan didn’t believe the woman’s actions were criminal. Sullivan said she based her decision on Scott’s "willingness to apologize, her lack of prior criminal history and a belief that maternal instinct may get the better of common sense."

Boehm insisted officers made a legitimate arrest even though charges against Scott were dropped.

"Prosecutors have to look at a lot of different things, but that doesn’t mean the arrest wasn’t proper," he said. "Our review suggests that it was proper."

Smith said he was "extremely disappointed" with the police review of the incident with his client and predicted others in the community would be upset with Boehm’s analysis.

"It doesn’t give me a whole lot of confidence in their internal review process," Smith said. "I think police officers’ conduct needs to be addressed in this community. I think there needs to be outside checks placed on the police department."

SECOND THOUGHTS: Friday, June 9, 2006

A story yesterday about a disturbance at Columbia Mall inaccurately characterized the reason Boone County Assistant Prosecutor Connie Sullivan dropped charges against a Columbia woman arrested at the scene. Sullivan said she meant to say she didn’t think Alva Scott’s "intentions" were criminal when she resisted a police officer’s attempt to make her leave the mall.