Cape Girardeau assistant chief honored at state level

A member of the command staff at the Cape Girardeau Police Department received a statewide honor this week.

Cape Girardeau assistant police Chief Rodney Barker was named the Law Enforcement Officer of the Year by the Missouri Crisis Intervention Team in a ceremony Tuesday, March 21.

"Assistant chief Barker has taken the lead for our agency in navigating the changing environment of mental health services and keeping the department abreast of the changes and available resources," a CGPD Facebook post said.

Barker is a member of the state CIT board and has been a crucial part of getting training for Cape Girardeau police officers to help them defuse potential hostile or violent situations in nonviolent ways.

During a presentation of the department's 2022 annual report at Cape Girardeau City Council meeting Monday, March 20, police Chief Wes Blair praised Barker for spearheading important projects at the department related to mental health.

The assistant police chief was instrumental in the partnership between Community Counseling Center and CGPD in which two mental health co-responders have begun working with law enforcement officers. The co-responders are part of a three-year grant program secured by CGPD.

A significant portion of the calls officers respond to are not crime issues, but mental health situations, Blair said. According to the annual report, CGPD responded to more than 5,000 welfare checks and averaged 61 minutes per call between 2020 and 2022. Within three weeks of the co-responders working alongside officers, the time an officer spends on a welfare call has been cut down to 15 minutes.

Blair said he "couldn't speak positively enough" about the work being done with the co-responders. Currently, they are only working daytime hours but that could expand in the future.

The police chief also credited Barker with the creation of the Shield of Armor conference, an annual wellness seminar for first responders hosted by CGPD. The conference is meant to help first responders improve their mental health and deal with the trauma they often encounter at work.

"Because our philosophy is 'you can't be a good public servant to the community if you're not healthy yourself,'" Blair said.

The seminar received more than 80 attendees last year from across the state and the police chief said around 100 participants from all over the country have signed up for this year's seminar.

Shield of Armor will be held Wednesday, April 12, to Friday, April 14.