DELTA BOARD DOES AWAY WITH POLICE

DELTA -- The Delta Board of Aldermen voted unanimously Monday to fire Police Chief Marty Keys and disband the police department.

The 4-0 vote came over the objections of Mayor Gary Anderson, who doesn't vote except in the case of a tie. The board's action is scheduled to take effect in 10 days.

The board action came after city residents submitted a petition calling for the police chief and the mayor to resign.

Anderson said he was told the petition was signed by about 130 people, but he doesn't know if all the signatures are valid. Anderson said he won't resign.

In disbanding the police force, the board also eliminated a part-time officer position. Dwayne Whitworth of Jackson said he had been scheduled to begin working soon as a part-time officer.

The city of 450 people in Cape Girardeau County has no other police officers.

Alderman Hughes Lesch said the board may rethink the matter. The board is scheduled to meet with the mayor Thursday night.

But Keys and Whitworth probably won't be retained, he said. "The people in the city don't want them," said Lesch.

The alderman said Whitworth was hired by the mayor and the police chief without the board's consent. But Whitworth said the board had approved hiring a part-time officer.

Lesch said the board could decide to hire a new police officer.

Keys said the board wanted him to operate a speed trap for out-of-town motorists, not investigate crimes.

The aldermen, he said, want a police chief who will write tickets, generating revenue for the city.

"All the aldermen said the city needed the revenue," he said. "They said they wanted a chief they could control better."

But Lesch said the board doesn't want a speed trap. Lesch said the board wanted Keys to patrol city streets, including Highway 25, which runs through town.

Lesch said Keys hasn't done the job that he was hired to do.

"Marty has been here six months and never brought in one cent of revenue," Lesch said.

"You never see him," Lesch said of Keys. "Nobody has seen him out."

Lesch said that any patrolling Keys did was late at night. He said the mayor often rode around with Keys.

Lesch said Keys was hired as a police officer, not as police chief. He said Anderson appointed Keys chief. "We didn't know we had a chief," said Lesch.

Keys insisted that traffic-ticket revenue is a key issue.

"Some years they would get $8,000 to $9,000 in revenue from tickets," Keys said.

Tickets, carrying fines of $128 per offense, also have been written to the Union Pacific Railroad when a freight train has closed a crossing for more than 15 minutes at a time, Keys said.

"The guy before me wrote eight tickets to the railroad in one eight-hour shift," he said.

"I don't look at a police force as something to raise revenue with," the police chief said.

Keys, who lives in Chaffee, has served as police chief of Delta for about six months. The full-time job pays $8.50 an hour. Whitworth said his job would have paid $6.50 an hour.

The police chief said his critics have been verbally attacking him for the last three months. He said he has wrongly been accused of everything from adultery to heading up a drug ring.

About 40 people attended Monday's board meeting at the community center. Those in the crowd included supporters and opponents of the police chief.

Whitworth, who is recovering from heart bypass surgery, said Delta needs a police department. "They have a drug problem in that town. They have a problem with teen-agers. Nobody wants to control their kids," he said.

Keys said city officials have suggested Delta might opt for a city marshal elected by the voters. But first there would have to be a qualified candidate, Keys said.

Like a regular police officer, a marshal would have to have at least 480 hours of law enforcement training, he said.