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 Cape Girardeau Police Department school resource officer Mark Wyatt watches over students changing classes Wednesday morning at Central High School. (Kit Doyle) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo] |
More than 86 percent of the money was awarded to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners, which both received more than $8 million to replace or create 50 officer positions each, according to the Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, office in the Department of Justice.
In addition, 12 other agencies, ranging from Parma Police Department, which serves a town of fewer than 1,000 people, to the police department of Independence, Mo., which has a population of more than 110,000 people, received enough money to hire one to three new officers.
The Cape Girardeau Police Department, which lost two patrol officer positions due to the city's hiring freeze, the Jackson Police Department, the Scott County Sheriff's Department and the Marble Hill Police Department were among 243 police and sheriff's departments in Missouri that submitted applications to the hiring recovery program.
"We're two positions down as a result of the budget situation, and we were hoping to be able to fill those," said Cape Girardeau police chief Carl Kinnison.
COPS spokesman Gilbert Moore said the grant program received application requests totaling $8.3 billion, more than seven times what was actually available and a more overwhelming response than administrators could recall seeing before.
"Cities and towns are hurting, they're facing layoffs, they're being impacted by a number of crimes that can be traced to hard economic times," Moore said.
As cities and towns struggle with having fewer officers on the street while maintaining strong departments, they face some tough decisions, Moore said.
Law enforcement agencies that requested money were subject to an analysis based on the financial health of the city, the department's community policing programs and the rate of serious crime in the department's community. Those factors were then used to rank the applicants by priority, meaning the margin between who received funding and who didn't was less than a tenth of a point in some cases, Moore said.
Cape Girardeau ranked the highest priority among the four local agencies that applied, ending up in the 81.7 percentile, with Scott County at 38.1, Jackson scoring 37.4, and Marble Hill ranked in the 30.5 percentile.
U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson criticized the disbursement of grant funds in a July 28 news release, pointing out that Hollister, Kennett and Parma were the other rural areas of Missouri that received part of the stimulus package.
"This is our tax money in rural America, too, and we are being shorted on COPS law enforcement big time," Emerson said in a statement.
Emerson cited the COPS grant as an example of the reasons she voted against the stimulus bill.
Those that received grant funding were permitted the amount needed to fill either a total of 50 officer positions or a number equal to 5 percent of the existing sworn officers within the department, Moore said.
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I know of 2 Cape Girardeau policemen (sure there's more) that live in Jackson and drive their patrol cars home with them to Jackson.
The cars sit there the whole time they're off duty.
I'm sure someone is going to tell me how this saves Cape Girardeau Police Department money.
I'm thinking there's a big waste of money with this policy if every officer that lives outside of Cape gets a furnished vehicle to drive back and forth to work.
Maybe it's time for a review of how things are being ran at the department.
The State continues to lay off employees in an attempt to maintain a balance budget, more than likely we will start seeing the Cities and Counties start lay offs next, the financial picture for the remainder of 2009 well in to 2010 don't look good what I have been told. The private sector will be the first to start recovering mid to late 2010 before the State and Local governments do.
Joann is not opposed to the stimulus money,she is just like all the other Republicans, she is angry about who receives the money.
Cape Girardeau has plenty of police officers!!!
If they have enough time to run radar as often as they do surely they can find the time to do other "police" activities-such as curbing crime and fighting the drug trafficking.I agree with the idea of managing the department better, rather than the need for more money.
As has been suggested previously, park those cruisers and put the guys in blue on a beat.
So now law enforcement is a public jobs program?
2wheeler, I have dealt with your kind for years. If a teen kills him or herself while speeding, you would be the first to say "why don't the cops slow those kids down, those kids drive to fast past my house. another arm chair quarterback! O and I bet you have had a ticket of two that's why you are down on the radar gun! LOL.
RedDevil and 2wheeler,
I know some of the Cape cops too, and even consider a couple of them as my friends.
The police department has adopted a car take home program which has proven to save YOUR tax dollars. One officer is assigned a vehicle and is responsible for it and is allowed to drive it home, with-in a certain distance. By keeping the police car at their residence, the officers can also respond to emergency call-outs more quickly, and they have all the necessary equipment already in the vehicle, therefore keeping YOU and other citizens safer, if the need should arise.
In taking their cars home, the officers can also work nights, weekends, holidays, go to court on their time off, and miss birthdays, sports events, school activities, and other special times with their children, and all the while make less money than a fast food restaurant manager.
And yes, part of their job responsibility is writing speeding tickets, but keep in mind, if you don't speed you don't get a ticket. That simple! That is another part of their job that will keep us all safer.
And finally, if you can do a better job, or want to get some of the wonderful benefits of being a police officer in either Jackson or Cape Girardeau, then put in your application and experience it first hand.
Stay safe!
Arrest Them,
Agreed; most know little to nothing about law enforcement and SOP of most departments. I recently spoke with a Cape Officer who had slept only a few hours over a two day period as he was on nights and had to be in court during the day.
You really save little by keeping positions open when you have to pay OT for Officers to come in on their RDO.
I knew the ones benefitting would come out of the woodwork.
I'm throwing a BS flag on the whole taking a car home to Jackson with you policy.
If they wanted to sleep more and have the use of a car to drive back and forth to work then they should have to live in the city limits of the town that pays their salary.
Anyone remember when the coroner was a Jackson policeman and he shot out the radiator in his cruiser while in pursuit?
Or the time he drove his cruiser off a loading dock behind H & S Equipment?
When did anybody say that this life was gonna be fair?
Let's be thankful for what we have and work together for a better tomorrow. We are all in this together, like it or not.
I would be willing to wager that the average patrol officer is not the officer bringing their city police cars home. I would guess that the police officers bringing their cars home with them are specialized officers such as detectives or Special Response Team officers who need to be able to report directly to calls in an emergency situation. If my house was under attack or my family member assulted, I would want police response as soon as possible. I would also bet that these officers are allowed to take their police cars home so that Cape Girardeau can keep them from leaving and going to another department where they are paid better.
As far as the stimulus money goes, the places that got the money seem to be ones where the voting seemed to go to mostly Obama. Maybe just coincidence but maybe not.
Red Devil,
I don't live in Cape and am not a Police Officer, so this does not affect me, but if it does you, you might want to go to a city council meeting to express your concerns. This is an ongoing debate in many jurisdictions.
As to those who take their cars to Jackson, I really don't know. The only Officer I know who has a car assigned to him does not get to take it home.
catfish63755,
Good point aboot keeping good Officers, but I am afraid it will fall on deaf ears.
Wait!!!! Cape only has one officer who writes traffic tickets full time! I read that just a few days ago in this media. So if this is the case, whats the rest of them doing? I agree with red devil. " If they wanted to sleep more and have the use of a car to drive back and forth to work then they should have to live in the city limits of the town that pays their salary".
Seems reasonable to me. I know our boys in blue have a tough job at times but I am not going to give them any pity for having to work overtime!
I have several folks here where I work who would welcome any opportunity to get some overtime much less a vehicle to drive to and from work! We all work hard and the boys in blue do not have a monopoly on that! Nor do they have the most dangerous job. I do however appreciate their service. Arrestthem, if the pay is not good enough they should use their freedom of choice and find other work. Perhaps a restaurant manager would be a good idea.
Concerning officers in Cape taking their vehicles home!! ABSOLUTELY they do. I have two Boys in Blue living a couple of blocks up. They always have their cruisers at home with them. I have no problem with that however. They live in the City limits.
Many municipalities do have a residency requirement for their employees. It's rather a common-sense policy, actually ... a nuisance to some, but the principle is that property and/or personal property taxes of a town's employees really should be paid to ... the town which is paying them with taxpayers' dollars?
How, and by whom, is it decided who receives 'stimulus' monies? Who reads all the requests and evaluates them? From some of the articles we come across, ir appears that much of the stimulus money is not ... um ... stimulating very much, at least not in the long run.
GREYWOLF,
You and others would he "howling" a different tune if you needed one of the boys in blue sometime for an emergency, and before they responded, they had to drive to the police department, get the police car with necessary equipment and then respond to YOUR emergency. The key is emergency and not regular call for service.
(emergency-like someone holding you and your family hostage at gun point)
I would think that Cape Police has more than one officer who writes tickets. You are so interested and you have no idea what "the rest of them are doing"? Do you read the newspaper or watch the news? I was curious one time what they did also, so I went down and saw for myself, I rode with one of the boys in blue, and I admit that it opened my eyes, and my attitude change from criticism to understanding and support. I would not want the job. I realized that I should not criticize if I had no idea what the boys in blue did. Maybe you should check it out.
Residency requirements are a thing of the past for most departments and really is not practical if you want to have a good pool of qualified applicants. As per the admonition of shut up or find a different job, it is being realized with many leaving law enforcement for better paying jobs. A friend of mine is making the transition this month and will make $6,000 more and have his own personal car. The number of people who go through POST training and remain in law enforcement is pretty low. There is also a problem of retention in many departments as trained people bail the day they hit retirement eligibility.
As to complaining about overtime, if any of this was directed at one of my posts, I have never heard of anyone complaining about OT and my reference was to the comparison of costs/savings related to leaving positions open.
As in most situations, you get what you pay for and if you want people who can't get a better job and must settle for a low paying one, you will get that. I have run into some Officers who loved the gun and badge so much they would do it for very little, but these are not the people you want.
In regards to readiness, I once had someone run on me and when I radioed for assistance, a Deputy had to respond from home as everyone else was tied up. He had to go get a car and when he got there, he didn't have a weapon with him, cuffs, PR24, or Pepper Spray. I had to give him a weapon with which he was not familiar, had not qualified with. Unfortunately, this was not the only time such a thing has happened.
you go, barney fife.
Red Devil,
Your Knowledge of Police Work is astounding!!! Please I beg you, apply to a be a police officer.
As I said before.....
I knew the ones benefitting would come out of the woodwork.
Who would that be Red Devil??? Please explain.