POLICE DEPARTMENT INITIATES EXPLORER POST

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Teenagers and young adults leaning toward a career in law enforcement will soon gain experience through the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

Early last month, the department formed a law enforcement Explorer post open to young people 15 to 20 years of age. Ten students from area schools, primarily Southeast Missouri State University, make up the post. Three members are female.

Explorer posts are affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America, according to post adviser and police Patrolman Roger Fields. Helping Fields oversee the post as associate advisers are several other department officers. Patrolman David Felton serves as the post's chairman, Fields said.

"What we'd really like to do is when people get out into the job force, they can put on their application that they were a member of an Explorer post and that will have some meaning to somebody," he said.

Although the post was formed in December, the exact details of how members will gain their experience through the department still needs to be determined. Fields said those details need to be discussed with the department's chief of police, Howard Boyd.

"At this point we're trying to keep the group kind of small until the advisers get a grip on what we need to be doing," said Fields. "We're just wanting to see the numbers we can handle before we start expanding. I'd rather grow than shrink."

Eventually, he said, the post could have up to 15 or 16 members.

Sgt. Carl Kinnison said post members would participate in department activities. One of those, Kinnison said, would be a program called Safety Town that will begin later this year.

The program will be started through the Community Traffic Safety Program, he said, and will deal with a variety of safety issues that concern children, such as skate boarding, bicycle riding, and crossing the street.

Fields said post members meet twice a month at night.

"The thing is when we have these meetings, it's their (the members') meetings. They run the whole show. The only time we speak is if they have a question. That's where we get the title adviser all we do is advise."

Establishment of the post came about, Fields said, after he talked with Cape Girardeau Assistant City Manager Al Stoverink about the idea at a swearing-in ceremony for Eagle Scouts. Stoverink is chairman of the Boy Scouts' Shawnee District and helped get the Explorer post started.

Previously a detention supervisor with the Cape Girardeau County Juvenile Detention Center, Fields said he wanted to start the post so he could keep working with young people.

Counselors at various schools Southeast, as well as Cape Central, Notre Dame and Jackson high schools were contacted and asked to refer students who they believed would be interested in the program. Letters were then sent to the students inviting them to join the program, Fields said.

The post's vice president, 20-year-old Stacy L. Kinder of Cape Girardeau, a sophomore majoring in criminal justice at Southeast, said she wants to become a homicide investigator. She joined the post, she said, because she thought it would be a good way to get law enforcement experience.

Sean K. Wood, 19, of Perryville, said he basically expressed interest in the post because he did a ride-along program with the Perryville Police Department last summer. Also a Southeast criminal justice major, Wood hopes to get on with the Illinois State Police.

"This is like a stepping stone for a career I hope," he said.

Coincidentally the post's number is 911, the same number used to report emergencies to authorities by telephone. Post members wanted the number because of its irony, and it was available, Fields said.

Those wishing to join the post when it begins accepting additional members may call Fields at the Cape Girardeau Police Department, 335-6621. Members need not be students.