POLICE TRY TO ARREST TURNOVER; CAPE POLICE BACK UP TO STAFF, BUT SOME ARE STILL IN TRAINING

The Cape Girardeau Police Department can't slow down its revolving door.

Annual turnover of officers will likely exceed 10 percent for the sixth straight year, with six officers leaving by the end of June. Since 1996, between 7 and 21 officers annually have gone on to new jobs or retirement.

Although this year's loss is somewhat offset by the hiring of five new officers at the beginning of June, none of them will have completed enough training to work independently until this fall, Lt. Carl Kinnison said.

"On paper, it looks like we're up to staff, but in a practical sense for the next three months we'll be down five officers," Kinnison said. "If others leave in the meantime, it becomes a vicious cycle."

City officials are still waiting for results from a $43,000 study of the department sparked by the turnover problem. The Police Executive Research Forum, a non-profit firm based in Washington, D.C., is supposed to present its findings this month.

This year's resignations generally involve officers getting jobs with better hours, pay or both, Capt. Randy Roddy said.

One officer, Judy Gentry, left the police after 18 years to work for the Department of Public Safety at Southeast Missouri State University. Patrolman William Kincade left after seven years to buy his own business. School resource officer Rob Barker will quit this month after three years to attend law school.

Two other officers left after working only a few months, Roddy said.

The turnover has resulted in more overtime, postponed vacations and shuffling officers into new assignments, said Capt. Steve Strong, interim police chief.

"When you operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it takes more people," Strong said.

Injuries to Sgt. Brad Moore and Cpl. Keith May in a shooting caused additional management troubles. Sgt. Barry Hovis was taken off his assignment at the department's substation on Good Hope Street to fill Moore's role. A corporal from the detectives took May's place until he returned last month.

Including the five officers in training, the department is only one patrolman below 72, the level of full staffing. But it will take three to six months before the five either complete training in the department or at the Southeast Law Enforcement Academy, Kinnison said.

Paying for training

To increase the number of applicants, the department changed its policy last year of hiring people after they completed training at a police academy. Candidates who are hired now get their police academy training paid for by the city.

"We started this last summer," Roddy said. "If we don't put some of them through the academy, it limits our number of applicants."

Criminal justice majors at Southeast Missouri State University can graduate with a bachelor's degree, but that doesn't meet the state's standards for police certification, Roddy said.

"The university graduates CJ majors every year that can't work as police," he said. "We hope to get some of them and put them through the academy."

The $2,000 cost of Southeast Law Enforcement Academy is reimbursed to applicants hired by the police department over four years.

"This guarantees that we either get four years out of them, or we get what we pay for," Roddy said.

Only four have been hired under the reimbursement program so far, but department administrators believe this will increase.

To be certified as a police officer in Missouri, 480 hours of training must be taken at a police academy recognized by the state Department of Public Safety. If someone enrolls as a full-time student five days a week, Southeast's academy takes 12 weeks. A weekend study program takes twice as long.

With Cape Girardeau's high police turnover continuing, the department needs to use all the incentives it can to increase the number of applicants, Roddy said.