Police ask residents for help to quiet Cape

Police are stumped as to how to cut back the crime plaguing Cape Girardeau's southside streets.

On Tuesday 18 area residents met with police and offered ideas on making the area less appealing to nighttime crowds and drug dealers.

Sgt. Rick Schmidt led the neighborhood watch meeting, which takes place the third Thursday of every month at 6 p.m. He pleaded with the group to offer suggestions.

"We're against a brick wall right now," he said. "We've run out of ideas."

Police have placed nighttime barricades along Morgan Oak and Ellis streets for the last four weekends, but police don't believe the barricades are a long-term solution.

Several residents offered suggestions, including timed parking zones, residential parking permits and towing offenders. They also expressed a desire for more patrols by officers on foot and with the department's K-9.

Carla Ford of Rear South Ellis Street asked for progressive fines.

"If they get fined $10, then the next one ought to be $25, and then higher," she said. "Hit them where it hurts."

A few attendees said they had been physically threatened by drug dealers because they dared to stand up to them.

"It's going to have to be the neighbors taking back their neighborhood," Ford said. "This is my neighborhood too, and this ain't gonna happen here if I can help it."

Chief Steve Strong told the group the barricades placed at Morgan Oak and Ellis are a good start but are not the ultimate solution because they only split the crowd to other streets, such as the area of Jefferson and Ellis and along South Lorimier.

Schmidt said the problematic individuals are catching on that they aren't welcome, but at a cost of nearly $1,000 a week in officer overtime pay.

"It's like a parade of cars, really it is," he said. "They go by, find out they have to turn around and then it's one car right after another."

The officers played devil's advocate on some ideas, advising the group that what might sound good at first could become inconvenient later. Under residential permit parking, legitimate visitors couldn't park on those streets and other neighborhoods may oppose it.

When Albert Bell of Pacific Street asked about more teen activities organized by the city's parks department, Lt. Ike Hammonds doubted that would address the right people.

"No, I've been there and done that," Hammonds said. "The people that are causing the problems will not attend structured activities."

Bell agreed, saying he doubted those crowding the streets were simply socializing.

"About half of these people are drug dealers," he said. "There are a lot more drug dealers than we think."

The best solution might be a combination of the ideas presented, Schmidt said.

"One thing is not going to solve it," he said. "It's going to take a bunch of things."

The city council is receptive to the department's ideas, but a resident's words would speak louder, Schmidt said.

"If it comes from you, it means more," he said.

Despite the neighborhood's problems, progress has been made thanks to the cooperation of residents, businesses and police, Schmidt said.

"In 1993, when I first started here, you did not send an officer alone to Don's Store 24," he said. "They would send at least two marked patrol cars. Today, that area is ours."

mwells@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160