Editorial

Cape PD building trust while also solving crimes

We are lucky here in Cape Girardeau to have a police force that is going about things the right way.

Ever since the city of Cape Girardeau brought Wes Blair to town to lead the department, a community policing style has been a priority.

We've written numerous stories about the department's efforts to be more visible in neighborhoods and throughout town, so that people could see the men with badges in non-conflict situations. Relationship building is at the heart of this strategy. As the thinking goes, when bad things happen, people in rough neighborhoods will have enough trust in police to pass along information that can lead to arrests.

But it's not just about that. It's police seeing people as people, too. When police arrive in rough neighborhoods to do their roll calls, they're not seeing gang bangers. They're seeing people who care about their neighborhoods. They're seeing moms and dads and grandpas and grandmas. Maybe that makes a difference. We hope it does. While it's absolutely preposterous, numbing and heartbreaking to see police targeted in shootings, it's also startling, on personal and Orwellian levels, to see instances where it looks like police get caught up in the violent atmosphere and shoot people when it's uncalled for.

During the frenzy of social media and video sharing and protests, it's important to remember that police have a basic job to do. To that end, the Cape PD and other local law enforcement have had some really positive outcomes worth noting recently.

* Through good police work and due to cooperation of witnesses, police were able to identify and arrest a man believed to be involved in a downtown shooting on July 2. A witness stepped forward, anonymously, and gave enough information that cops were able to bring charges. This particular shooting injured three people. There is no way to know for sure, but we wonder if the increased presence and community policing directly resulted in this witness cooperation.

* Six were arrested following an investigation by the SEMO Drug Task Force, of which Cape PD is a part. These arrests were the result of drug busts on Bellevue, William, Fountain, Lexington and Broadway streets, in other words a fairly large cross section of the city. The drug busts included addictive pain pills and other prescription drugs, marijuana and cocaine

* And Cape police were able to solve a theft case from several years ago, thanks to a DNA match. Our county officers were able to solve a 2013 copper theft, thanks to DNA. At the time of the theft, an officer submitted a cigarette butt collected at the scene of a large copper theft and submitted it to the Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Lab. The suspect, who was later apprehended for a different crime, was swabbed after police attained a warrant. The DNA matched.

As police face adversity, it's important to note their successes and recognize and thank them for the difficult and dangerous jobs they do.

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