Columbus has seen a spike in domestic violence cases and homicides in the last two years.
In 2022, just 5% of the city's 139 homicides were caused by domestic violence. That spiked to about 17% in 2023 and about 19% in 2024.
Since 2022, the number of felony domestic violence cases has jumped from under 300 to more than 800. This is mostly due to a change in state law to reclassify strangulation cases as felonies.
The Columbus Division of Police and Mayor Andrew Ginther addressed the number of these crimes and other police statistics at a Tuesday afternoon press conference. In addition to a dramatic drop in car thefts over the last three years, the statistics around domestic violence deaths and assaults stood out.
Ginther said the city is trying to address this issue, but more action is needed besides a police response.
"The spike in domestic violence homicides cannot be solved by the Division of Police. That's a place where the rest of the community needs to step up, provide more resources and support to get women and children and families out of domestic violence situations," Ginther said.
Ginther said he's asking the city's Office of Violence Prevention to start a city-wide effort to address the problem. He did not provide further details on what the initiative could look like.
"We've seen now two years of a dramatic increase of domestic violence-related homicides. And we collectively as a community need to do something about it," Ginther said.
Assistant Chief Greg Bodker said the city is working with the community to address domestic violence.
Bodker said this includes a pilot program on the city's west side where police bring a domestic violence advocate on some calls using a collaboration with partners at Nationwide Children's Center for Family Safety and Healing.
"(A total of) 232 times in 2024, those advocates responded to the scene and worked with victims, survivors of domestic violence. Only seven times in all of those responses did our victims or survivors say 'I don't need help,'" Bodker said.
When asked why he thinks domestic violence cases are spiking, Ginther said he suspects the reason may be linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"This is an area where the police are part of the solution, but I'm going to need...faith leaders, our partners in the community working with everything from the Shelter Board, Lutheran Social Services, other domestic violence organizations...for us to get to the bottom of what's going on," Ginther said.
Police Chief Elaine Bryant said the city's numerous partners are important to figuring out how to address the problem.
"We can't do this alone. So our partnerships, they matter. They're important. It's not just about enforcement. It is about education. It is about resources. It's about economics. It's about so many different things," Bryant said.
