Cape police juggle duties to make up for shortages

Officer Chris Muench spent Thursday working at the big front desk of the Cape Girardeau Police Department. All day, he made his goodbyes to buddies, heard good-natured jokes at his expense and explained to those who asked why he was leaving a job he loved.

After five years with the city, Muench, 33, has accepted a much bigger salary and a chance to be near his 8-year-old son in the St. Louis area by taking a job as a patrolman in Richmond Heights.

His exit doesn't surprise chief Steve Strong, but it still disturbs him, he said. The personnel shortage is more than just a scheduling challenge -- it's a daily triage.

The authorized staff size is 74, but manpower is down by nearly 20 percent due to five vacancies, two new officers undergoing months of field training, three officers on leave for service-related injuries, two injured officers on light duty assignment, one on maternity leave, one on indefinite military leave and another expecting military activation orders at any time.

This should be of concern to every member of the community, Lt. Roger Fields said.

Fields is in charge of scheduling, which has become a complicated juggling act of shuffling staff between departments to fill gaps. A different detective is pulled every two weeks from duty to work road patrol -- leaving some investigations at a near standstill. It's common for public information officers to work at the lobby desk or drive a cruiser for part of a shift.

"Basically, I'm trying to get the job done with what I have," Fields said.

Last year, the public made nearly 50,000 requests for service, of which 17,500 were 911 calls. During peak hours for service calls, at least one sergeant and six officers patrol the city.

"We should have at least 10 people out there," Strong said.

But with fewer officers to respond, requests for service pile up and things like traffic enforcement move to the backburner. It's not uncommon for officers busy at one scene to have a dispatcher asking how much longer until they can take another call.

An uncompetitive salary scale is blamed for the lack of officers. The base starting salary is $24,044. Smaller, nearby cities require less work for just as much money.

"We need to take steps to make this department more competitive," Strong said.

But he declined to conjecture about those steps. He recently gave city manager Doug Leslie a report on the salary structure, but no discussions about it have occurred, he said.

Strong won't just hire to fill the positions.

"I will not reduce our standards," he said.

The department is about to put out another call for applicants. During the last session, 41 people applied but only one person was found acceptable for hiring.

Even if an applicant was hired today, there would not be a new officer on the street for several months. Anyone hired without experience or state certification could not hit the streets alone until training was completed in August.

In Muench's new job, his earnings will jump from about $28,000 a year in Cape Girardeau to $43,000 in Richmond Heights -- about as much as a Cape Girardeau lieutenant earns.

The decision wasn't difficult, Muench said.

"I'm 33 years old with a college degree and I'm only making about $28,000," he said. "That's an equation I can't live with."

A comparison of Cape Girardeau police salaries to six other mid-sized Missouri cities in 2001 by the Police Executive Research Forum found Cape Girardeau paid patrolmen 17.91 percent less on average.

About a fourth of the city's officers have spent under three years in the department, Fields said. They come in fresh, gain some experience and then look around for a better job.

"Cape Girardeau is known as a 'stepping-stone' to other agencies," Fields said. "The majority of those who are staying here have a tie to the community, such as family."

Muench says Cape Girardeau should increase salaries -- and soon.

"At any given time, over 50 percent of these officers are looking for other jobs," he said. "It just boils down to whether they commit to them or not."

mwells@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160