CHANGES IN CHARLESTON, PART 2; NEW DPS CHIEF CONFIDENT OF FUTURE

CHARLESTON -- Charleston has a "bad rap", according to new Department of Public Safety Chief Richard Couch.

Couch, who started his new job in June, said people have a negative image of the small town and its 5,000 or so inhabitants because of old information and bad publicity. In fact, most of the residents are law-abiding citizens who are not interested in an existing drug culture or "wannabe" gang members, he said."We've got all the major problems any large community has, especially one that's located on an interstate," said Couch. "I'm happy with Charleston from the standpoint I don't see the problems I thought I was going to encounter."Part of the controversy surrounding the community exists because it has a large number of public housing units and has a good mix of black and white inhabitants. Couch said he is receiving good cooperation from the community in developing new policies, procedures and programming, regardless of social or other divisions that have existed in the past."A citizen's perception of what the crime rate is depends on their perspective," he said. "One of our drawbacks here is we have five different housing authority locations, and that makes it hard to get everything patrolled, but I've had a lot of support from both sides of town."Former state legislator Betty Hearnes, wife o former Gov. Warren Hearnes, said crime is just one of the areas where residents are pulling together. The racial conflicts of the past have "kind of worked out" of late, and people are finally working for the benefit of the entire community, she said.

Hearnes indicated the town's designation as an Operation Weed and Seed community as one example of the new cooperation."It did me good to see both races come together. You've gotta have both sides of town working to accomplish these kinds of things," said Hearnes. "Everybody's sort of joined hands to say we need to do something about Charleston -- all of it."Couch said he believes a significant part of the town's crack cocaine problems was addressed with the creation of one-way streets within a housing authority development on the west side of town. One-way streets alternate throughout the neighborhoods, which feature private residences intermingled with public housing units."They were a suggestion by the housing authority because national studies suggest they keep traffic flowing," Couch said. However, crack continues to be sold in town, and there is a developing methamphetamine market that is not occurring in the area contained by the one-way streets, Couch said."We're not finding our synthetic drugs on that part of town, mainly because your minorities are not really getting into the meth," he said. "All I can say is we're working on it."A former undercover officer with the Southeast Missouri Drug Taskforce, Couch was familiar with the town's drug problem before becoming police chief. However, he said he has no method of comparing crime statistics because local data wasn't recorded in the past.

New recordkeeping procedures are now being developed, because officers need to know what problems are most pressing in their community, he said."We're trying to set up some ways of keeping statistical information because right now I don't have anything to judge from," Couch said. For now, Couch said his main focus is getting his department prepared for anticipated population increases and service calls. The department, which handles all fire and police calls for the town, is currently understaffed and isn't prepared for the opening of a state prison in two years.

Couch said he hopes to be fully staffed before next summer.