Cape council members support police decision to discontinue most funeral escorts

Cape Girardeau police chief Wes Blair’s decision to discontinue most police escorts for funeral processions has the backing of council members.

Council members and Mayor Harry Rediger said city manager Scott Meyer discussed the idea individually with council members.

The issue was not discussed at a regular council meeting or public study session because the decision was not the council’s to make, Rediger said.

But he and other council members said Thursday the decision, which took effect Sept. 1, was the correct one.

The council members said the move will allow the city to reallocate officers for more patrolling and community-policing efforts.

Rediger said the goal is to increase the number of officers on patrol.

“We think it will work and be productive. I think it is the right decision,” the mayor said.

Rediger said motorists typically pull to the side of the road when they see a funeral procession.

“People are very compassionate and respectful,” he said.

He added, “We have not had a safety issue with funeral processions.”

Rediger said city officials will monitor the situation and react if changes need to be made.

Blair said police still will provide escorts for funeral processions of 40 cars or more, as well as funerals for law-enforcement officials and firefighters killed in the line of duty and dignitaries.

Many police departments don’t provide routine funeral escorts, he said.

Blair said he never worked for a police department that provided such escorts until he was hired as Cape Girardeau’s police chief.

Under state law, police don’t have to provide escorts, he added.

Blair said he discussed the idea with the city manager before making the move.

“From the very beginning, we were all hesitant to do it,” Blair said, explaining police escorts have been a tradition in Cape Girardeau.

He added city staff notified funeral-home operators earlier this summer about the possible move.

“We didn’t spring this on the funeral homes at the last minute,” Blair said.

Ward 6 Councilman Wayne Bowen said it is hard to justify police escorts “when we are short of police overall.”

The decision, he said, would allow more effective deployment of police officers in the city.

Bowen said it would be up to the discretion of the police chief to decide when police escorts are warranted. Such exceptions should be rare, he said.

Ward 4 Councilman Robbie Guard acknowledged the tradition of police escorts in the community but said officers are needed for more pressing duties.

“For the safety of all residents, it is the right decision,” he said.

In a letter to funeral homes, the city said the decision was made over concerns about public safety, manpower and liabilities.

According to the letter, the city stands to be liable for a collision that occurs while police are escorting a funeral procession.

Most of the time, there are not enough officers to cover all the intersections properly, officials said.

Typically, an escort requires two or three patrol cars.

“Officers have to ‘leapfrog’ and go from one intersection to the next quickly, which is not a safe way to do an escort and could lead to a motor-vehicle accident,” according to the letter.

But council members said eliminating police escorts primarily addresses the need to reallocate officers to patrol duties.

“It is more of a manpower issue than it is a liability,” Guard said.

Cape Girardeau police spend an estimated 165 hours a year providing escorts for funerals, police Lt. Brad Smith said.

“This is equivalent to one officer working for more than 20 eight-hour shifts and is approximately one month of normal business days,” Smith wrote in an email. At base patrolman pay of $17.92 an hour, that amounts to a cost of $2,963, Smith said.

On average, an escort takes 34 minutes, he added.

Police worked, on average, 24 funeral escorts a month, or nearly 300 annually, over the past three years, Smith said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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