Cape County government to partner with law enforcement, church for incident training

Cape Girardeau County is teaming with La Croix United Methodist Church to bring incident preparedness training to the region's faith-based and law enforcement communities.

On Monday, the Cape Girardeau County Commission received an application summary report on a $3,800 Department of Homeland Security grant for intruder awareness and response training. The bulk of the public funding, $3,000, would pay for an eight-hour training session for up to 75 people, and another $800 would cover the cost of 100 box lunches.

"Preparing countywide plans are a day-to-day need but preparing individuals thru organizations and group efforts to meet the immediate personal needs during an incident until further assistance arrives is a critical part of any plan," according to the grant request, filed by the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department.

Faith-based organizations "supply an infinite amount of people that can be relied upon during an incident," the document says.

Places of worship have been subject to violent assaults, like the August 2007 incident in which a gunman burst into a church in Neosho, Mo., and killed two worshippers and an assistant pastor. Four others were wounded.

The training would be conducted by Strategos International, a Missouri-based company that has trained more than 7,500 law enforcement, military, church, school, security and business professionals since 2002, according to the firm's website.

In other business, commissioners learned that the county clerk's office has received a check for $5,415.95 from the Missouri secretary of state's office, through the polling access grant. The money paid for 40 two-sided "Vote Here" plastic signs, at $119.95 each, and another two-sided sign for $149.95, as well as the cost of shipping. The signs were first used in the November election and will be rolled out again at all accessible polling places in the county in next week's spring election.

Cape Girardeau County Clerk Kara Clark Summers said the grant money paid to replace "clunky" metal signs.

"We had some poll workers who were literally cutting their hands on those," she said.

mkittle@semissourian.com

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