COUNCIL ASKED FOR MORE POLICE

Despite annual increases in the city's crime rate, there has been no corresponding rise in the number of police officers, a concern the Cape Girardeau Regional Fraternal Order of Police wants rectified.

At Wednesday's Cape Girardeau City Council meeting, representatives of the group asked that the council boost the local police force from 59 to 66 officers.

Charles Herbst, a Cape Girardeau police officer and member of the FOP, told the council that although calls for service in the city have increase 57 percent and the number of arrests have risen 44 percent, the number of officers actually dropped from 60 to 59 between the years 1986 and 1992.

"The Fraternal Order of Police believes that increasing to 66 the number of police officers in Cape Girardeau will provide the highest level of services available," Herbst said.

Although crime reports have increased dramatically, the number of cases cleared by the police department has decreased from 51 percent in 1986 to only 34 percent last year.

Herbst attributed the drop to an increase in the amount of time each officer is forced to spend dealing with each report.

The council in June approved adding two officers to the police force, but officer Barry Hovis said the increase is insufficient. "Our feelings are that this is not going to be enough for what our needs are right now," Hovis said.

He said a full force of 66 officers would enable more patrolmen to work high-crime areas in the city and still allow time to deal with the paperwork associated with a growing workload.

Herbst reported that the national average of police officers per 1,000 residents in a city is 2.2. The average for Midwestern cities is 2.1 per 1,000, and of the of 11 cities surveyed in the region, the average is 1.8.

By increasing the number of officers to 66, Cape Girardeau's rate per 1,000 residents would increase to 1.9.

Following the meeting, Hovis also said that although most Missouri cities spend 16 to 35 percent of their budgets on police protection, the percentage of Cape Girardeau's budget earmarked for the police department is only 11 percent.

Police Chief Howard "Butch" Boyd Jr. said he supported the contentions of the FOP. "We're overworked," Boyd said. "The figures can't be argued with."

Councilman Doug Richards asked Boyd if he supported increasing the force to 66 officers.

"We'd have work for them to do," Boyd said. "But there's more to it than that. We'd have to have more equipment, more automobiles, more office space and more jail space."

At the council's Aug. 16 meeting, Richards asked Boyd and other city staff members to draft a plan of action for dealing with high-crime areas in the city.

Boyd said the report would address some of the issues brought to the council by the FOP. He said the report likely will be ready in October.

Mayor Gene Rhodes said he supports any effort to find money in the budget to hire additional officers.

"I for one think the police department is doing an excellent job in the city," Rhodes said. "I would like to see us juggle the budget to help those fellows out."

Councilman David Limbaugh added: "I think there's a direct correlation between crime and the number of officers on the street. Of all the roles of government, none are more important than law enforcement."

Richards said it's time for the council to address the staffing and equipment needs of the police department.

But City Manager J. Ronald Fischer said any additional money for the department would have to come from some type of "emergency appropriation."

"Right now, it is not in the budget without taking it from some other department budgets," Fischer said.

In other business, the council reviewed plans to bid out a contract for the city's landfill services. Representatives of Sverdrup Corporation of St. Louis were on hand to explain the bid specifications.

The city's present landfill contract with Lemon's Landfill in Dexter expires at the end of December. In February, the council agreed to bid out a contract to haul the city's solid waste rather than extend the existing agreement with Lemon's.

Sverdrup was hired in June to analyze the situation and prepare the bid specifications. The five-year contract is expected to cost about $500,000 annually.