ORIGINAL JAIL HAD DUNGEON; CAPE HAD POLICE SERVICES AT START

METERED PARKING: Parking meters once lined Cape Girardeau's business sections. Above, Cape Girardeau Patrolman Norval M. Friesie repairs a meter. The parking meter era began in 1948, when 425 meters were placed along Broadway, Main and Good Hope shopping areas. The number grew until the early 1970s, when there were about 950. The city council voted unanimously in October of 1980 to remove several hundred remaining parking meters from city streets. Below, the circa 1938 Cape Girardeau Police Force shows off their two motorcycles and patrol cars. They're standing in front of the police station and court at the corner of Frederick and Independence, the current home of the River Heritage Museum. (JUDITH ANN CROW COLLECTION)

Soon after Cape Girardeau was established as a trading post in 1793, its founding determined the need for law and order within the town's boundaries.

According to early history of the area, Cape Girardeau had police protection services from the outset. In the beginning, through city Ordinance No. 5, the mayor appointed a marshal who was empowered to enforce all city ordinances. He did not receive a regular salary, but instead was paid on a fee basis: making 50 cents for serving notice on delinquent citizens and 75 cents for a weekly patrol.

The marshal was also paid $1 to attend the weekly meetings of the city council.

In 1806, the city entered into a contract to build a courthouse and jail. Records show that the jail was finished in December of that year, but, due to problems with the contractor, the courthouse was not completed until 1851. The Common Pleas Courthouse is part of the original building and jail.

The Calaboose - the original city jail - was built in 1856 just north of the Memorial Fountain in the Courthouse Park. The Calaboose faced east, had a barred window and door, and measured 12-by-25 feet. The cells contained iron rings, fastened to the walls, where criminals could be chained. Several benches and a stove completed the furnishings. A dungeon and whipping post were located nearby.

In 1859, a workhouse was erected where offenders could be sentenced for a period of 10 hours each day as punishment for their offenses.

The Cape Girardeau Police Department originated in an ordinance passed on March 25, 1859. The mayor appointed a captain of police and a lieutenant as his assistant. Each officer was to appoint three men, who were on duty from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

As the years passed, other assistants were added. However, the city still paid officers through the fee method; thus, the more arrests the men made, the more they were paid.

The first automobile accident recorded in this city occurred after dark on Oct. 2, 1909, at Broadway and Main.

A new police station and jail were built at the corner of Frederick and Independence streets in 1909. The police remained in this building - which they shared with the fire department - until Jan. 1, 1960, when they moved into the former Grace Methodist Church building at the corner of Independence and Sprigg.

By 1904, the city had a population of 5,000 people. There was a town marshal and four part-time officers paid on a fee basis.

In 1918, the aldermanic form of city government was replaced by the commission form. The marshal's position was no longer elected but appointed by the city council. Also, for the first time police were paid by a regular salary.

At that time, qualifications were established for a police officer. Applicants for employment as a police officer had to be over 21 years of age, able-bodied and a sober and discreet person. His duties were to keep the peace, protect life and property and to enforce all city ordinances.

Also about this time, the department was given a new function - directing and controlling traffic.

In 1934, Cape Girardeau - population 16,000 - was being protected by 10 police officers. They were paid $1,100 per month.

Twenty years later the regular force had grown to 22 men, plus a police commissioner. Their combined monthly salary was $4,695.

The sanctuary, with its original benches, were transformed into the municipal courtroom. In 1974 the municipal courtroom moved to the Common Pleas Courthouse and the benches were donated to a local congregation. The room was then used for training and briefing police officers.

The basement of the building was used as a jail; the cells were built of scrap metal. It could hold 16 prisoners. The basement was also used as an indoor range for target practice.

In the fall of 1976, the police moved its force to their current headquarters at the corner of Sprigg and Merriwether Streets. The two-floor building contains several office areas, a jail with facilities for 32 prisoners, 100 lockers for the officers and reservists, new and modern communication equipment, and other modern utilities valuable to law enforcement.

The present department is divided into two sections: field operations and staff services. The detective, patrol and traffic divisions are under the direction of the commander of field operations. The communications, records and jail are guided by the commander of staff services. The training-plans division and crime prevention division are under the direct supervision of the chief of police.

Today, the Cape Girardeau Police Department consists of 59 regular officers, 24 reserve officers and 24 civilian employees. On July 2, two new patrolmen will be added to the department roster.

"The nature of police work has changed dramatically since I began," said Cape Girardeau Police Chief Howard "Butch" Boyd Jr. "For example, all of our officers carry rubber gloves now to avoid infection by blood-borne pathogens. We wouldn't have even considered anything like that when I started."

Boyd said that the electronic age has finally caught up with law enforcement and makes their jobs considerably easier.

"I can sit here and pull up the entire history of every person we have ever arrested, spoken to or been otherwise involved with since 1987 (when the Cape Girardeau police computer system went on line)," Boyd said. "It's a wealth of information literally right here at our fingertips."

Boyd also said that today's police officers are much better trained and disciplined than officers of the past.

"Some of the officers have gone to college, but it's not a requirement," Boyd said. "Four years in college improves on communications skills of the officers and generally they write better reports, but some of the best officers I've ever had have never stepped foot inside a college classroom."

The patrolmen continue to write arrest and accident reports in longhand, to be typed by the secretarial staff at a later time.

"Let it suffice to say that we've never lost a case because the officer's report was handwritten," Boyd said. The chief said that if an officer's report is incomplete, he will not hesitate to send it back to be completed.

Some departments use computers inside police cars to file reports; others have officers call into a transcribing service to log their reports immediately.

"We haven't chosen either one of those methods," Boyd said. "But I'm sure we'll see a change in that in the future."

One area that has changed drastically since their invention is the automobiles that police officers drive.

"They're state of the art," Boyd said.

Most police cars are built with police packages: heavy duty seats, anti-lock brakes, double-capacity radiators and alternators, heavy duty brakes and an unparalleled suspension system. Boyd said the cars will have to be entirely revamped in 1994 to deal with duel airbags built into the dashboard for the driver's and passenger's safety.

"There can't be any equipment in the way of the bag deploying," Boyd said. "That means that a lot of the radio equipment, radar guns, rifles and other police equipment will have to be moved to accommodate the new safety features."

This fall the Cape Girardeau control room will have an operational enhanced 911 system at their disposal. When a person calls 911, the police will have immediate access to the person's address and phone number, to be able to dispatch officers more quickly.

Police may be facing the problem of narrowing their police band frequency or scrambling their signals in the future, Boyd said. Cellular phones also could play a major role in police work, providing a completely secure medium for police communications.

The police added another dimension to their tactical forces three years ago when they purchased Greif, a drug-sniffing, crowd-control and tracking police dog.

"Greif is a wonderful addition to the force," Boyd said. "The judges have faith in Greif's nose; if he says there are drugs there, the judges will grant a search warrant."

Boyd also toted the value of having a crime lab so close to home. The Cape Girardeau police use the services of the Southeast Missouri crime Laboratory at Southeast Missouri State University..

"I can't say enough about how valuable that is to us," Boyd said. "They do all our blood work, alcohol testing, firearm tests and anything else they can do to help us out."