CAPE STOP ON MAGAZINE'S TOUR OF RIVER; TIME WILL HOLD MEETING ON COMMUNITY POLICING

Cape Girardeau will be one of the stops on Time magazine's trip down the Mississippi River to take what the publication calls "the pulse of America."

A team of Time reporters, photographers and editors will take a two-week journey down the river beginning in Hannibal on Monday and ending in New Orleans May 5.

Cape Girardeau is one of 21 cities the Time journalists plan to visit. Other stops in this region include Cairo, Ill., and New Madrid.

The team will explore issues such as race, education, health care, religion, family and poverty, and how the issues might affect presidential and congressional elections in the fall.

Their report will be featured in a special July 4 issue. CNN will shoot footage for a one-hour special to air on its "CNN & Time" program July 2.

About 30 people are involved in the project. About 15 are expected to be on the first leg of the trip from Hannibal to Memphis, Tenn. Time managing editor Walter Isaacson is scheduled to be on board for the entire trip.

"We want to get a feel for what people are discussing up and down America, we want to stumble across some good stories and we want to have some fun," Isaacson said.

The Time team is expected to arrive in Cape Girardeau by boat Wednesday afternoon. The boat is expected to dock here overnight.

As part of the project, Time plans to hold a forum Wednesday at the Show Me Center to discuss community policing in Cape Girardeau. The forum will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

The forum is one of two public meetings scheduled for the trip. The other is in Osceola, Ark., and will focus on charter schools and education reform.

The Cape Girardeau forum is titled, "Community policing: Is it making America safer?"

Ron Stodghill, Time's Midwest bureau chief in Chicago, is coordinating the forum and plans to serve as one of two moderators for a panel discussion. The other moderator is expected to be a local resident.

Stodghill said the Good Hope Street melee in June 1999 drew his attention to Cape Girardeau and the issue of community policing.

Some people in a crowd of 150 threw gravel and bricks at police officers in the Good Hope area during the melee. Eight officers were injured.

The incident prompted Police Chief Rick Hetzel, business leaders and southside residents to begin meeting as the Community Leadership Group last September to look at ways to improve neighborhoods and reduce crime.

Through the meetings, issues such as littering, public transportation and police racial sensitivity have been discussed.

Stodghill, who recently attended a meeting of the group, said he is interested in doing a story about the healing process that has taken place since the incident.

The bureau chief said he was impressed by the response of the Cape Girardeau Police Department and the community.

Hetzel has provided Time with a list of about 80 people representing a cross-section of the community. Hetzel said Stodghill has indicated that Time wants to invite about 60 people to the meeting. Stodghill said the exact number hasn't been finalized.

Hetzel said there isn't room in the Show Me Center meeting room to open it up to the general public. Stodghill said too large a crowd would limit discussion.

The comments made at the forum won't necessarily find their way into the Time magazine article but could provide a starting point for the magazine to explore the issue of community policing, he said.

Hetzel said the Good Hope Street incident can't be ignored. "I don't think you can talk about community policing and that not surface," he said.

"Communities across America are dealing with the same issues," he said. "Everyone has their Good Hopes."