Cape Girardeau officer recognized at U.S. Attorney's Office ceremony

Cape Girardeau police officer Brian Eggers was recognized as a distinguished officer by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri during its annual award ceremony last week in St. Louis.

The Cape Girardeau patrolman was awarded the Distinguished Service Award for his work as an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Task Force officer in the Southeast Missouri area.

Eggers, who has worked as an ATF Task Force officer for more than two years, said receiving the recognition was humbling.

After retiring from 20 years as part of the U.S. Air Force Security Forces, Eggers continued his career in law enforcement with the Cape Girardeau Police Department after moving with his family to the area. He has been a patrolman for five and a half years.

Through his involvement with the ATF Task Force, Eggers said the team targets the most violent offenders in an effort to reduce violent crime in the area. The task force may work on cases ranging from felony possession of firearms to robberies to drug offenses involving weapons.

In the two years Eggers has worked with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, he said he has seen about a hundred cases.

He began working with ATF after previously working alongside an ATF special agent. When a position became available on the task force, Eggers said he was approached to serve on it while still working with the Cape Girardeau Police Department. He works primarily in the Southeast Missouri region, but has also traveled to St. Louis and Arkansas to pursue cases tied to Southeast Missouri.

Eggers said one of the most important parts of his involvement in the task force is the teamwork between local officers in Cape Girardeau and the task force members.

“I don’t do anything alone. It’s because of the officers out here on the streets, the agents in the office and the officers in the surrounding counties,” Eggers said. “I’m surrounded by a whole bunch of really hard workers — they deserve the recognition as well. It was very humbling when I got notified.”

Eggers said about half of task force cases are adopted from local law enforcement and said he attributes the cases’ groundwork to the local officers involved with the first contact with suspects.

Some 30 other officers from the Eastern District of Missouri were honored at the Jan. 9 ceremony.