HETZEL OUTLINES ANTI-CRIME PROGRAM

Today is the day someone in the future will long to go back to, Cape Girardeau Police Chief Rick Hetzel told about 80 Chamber of Commerce members Friday.

"These are our children's good old days," Hetzel said. "We have a responsibility to make them secure."

Hetzel was guest speaker at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's First Friday Coffee at the Show Me Center. The monthly breakfast was held on the second Friday this month because of Independence Day last week.

Hetzel's plan for making Cape Girardeau a secure and healthy place involves aggressive police enforcement and a system of community partnership in solving problems.

Hetzel said he would like to return the image of the uniformed officer to that of a positive role model and friend of the community. He said some of the steps necessary to make it happen already are in place.

The new school resource officer, Cpl. Barry Hovis, begins his assignment at Cape Girardeau Central High and Junior High schools in the fall. Hetzel said there isn't a problem at the schools that requires a full-time police presence; instead, one of Hovis' responsibilities will be to act as a positive contact for teen-agers.

"The most common contact between a young person and a police officer is an arrest or a traffic stop -- a negative contact," Hetzel said. "We'd like to start having some positive contacts."

Hovis' presence should also be a general deterrent to crime, and he will be able to go into the classroom and explain the role of the police officer, Hetzel said.

The Cape Girardeau Police Department is also working within the business community to track and reduce crime. The department conducts personal safety presentations, helps establish Neighborhood Watch programs and is involved in such things as hotel-motel information networks.

"There is a certain segment of our criminal population that moves in a transient fashion through our communities that remain virtually undetected," Hetzel said. He said they often stay at hotels and motels, and he is working with those businesses to gather information that might coordinate with criminal-activity patterns.

Tim Ramage of Union Electric, who was in the audience for Hetzel's presentation, asked what is being done to free up space at the police station for officers to work. "I noticed that you have officers working out of what literally used to be closets," Ramage said.

Hetzel said the department is working to expand its facilities through several means. The city may contract with the sheriff's department to house all of its prisoners in the new or remodeled county jail once it is completed, which would open a great deal of space now being used to house prisoners, he said.

Hetzel said the city may also try to set up precinct departments.

Cape Girardeau City Councilman Melvin Gateley said plans are being considered that would include a police office in a new fire station the city hopes to construct on the west side.

Hetzel also presented statistics about the Cape Girardeau police force:

--The average officer is 37 years old with 10 years experience.

--Twenty-eight officers have bachelor's degrees and five have master's degrees.

--Seven have graduated from the FBI National Academy.

--Dispatchers handled 42,845 calls last year.

--The average police car is driven 47,000 miles every year. The entire patrol division drove 329,000 miles last year, averaging 901 miles per day.