RETIRING OFFICERS CAUSE CHANGES FOR POLICE

The Cape Girardeau Police Department is losing its experience.

With the retirement of Lt. Dale Ratliff last week, six officers with an average of 27 years of service have left the department this year. With the change, the police lost more than 20 percent of their years of experience.

Normally, average experience for Cape Girardeau patrol officers holds steady at 10 years, Lt. Carl Kinnison said. With retirements and the addition of 11 new officers this year, average experience has dropped to 8.6 years, which Kinnison said was the largest drop in 20 years.

Some retirements have been spurred on by improvements in benefits for longtime city employees, city manager Mike Miller said.

But considering an overall attrition of 29 police department employees this year, Miller said he will ask the City Council to contract with a nationally recognized firm to perform an evaluation of police operations at the end of January.

"Turnover is something that we're always concerned about," Miller said, "but at the same time we recognize that police turnover right now is part of a national trend."

Miller declined to say how much the evaluation will cost.

Focus on future

While some officers and others outside the department view the retirements as a signal for reassessment of police objectives, Chief Rick Hetzel sees the changes as balancing positives and negatives.

"This is not indicative of bad things for the department," Hetzel said. "We are focusing on the future."

Along with marking Ratliff's retirement on Friday, four officers received advancements in rank during the same ceremony.

"Anytime someone with experience leaves, you lose some institutional knowledge," Hetzel said. "But in any department, there are only a limited number of opportunities for upward mobility. This has created some excitement for some."

Using Lt. John Brown's retirement two weeks ago as an example, Hetzel said six officers were able to move into new roles or ranks when Brown left.

Newly promoted Sgt. Barry Hovis is glad for a chance to move up.

"It gives you a personal lift, as well as allowing you to achieve some monetary goals," Hovis said.

As the new head of the police substation on Good Hope Street, Hovis said he can now use his 14 years of experience in a different way.

"Before I was doing the legwork to serve people, which is why I got into police work," he said. "Now I'll be in the position to supervise people in that work."

Joseph Tado took over for Bob McCoy about four months ago as head of the scientific investigation unit. Tado said he knows his seven years of police experience pale in comparison to McCoy's 27 years.

"I don't come close to offering the city what this man does," Tado said.

Improvements planned

Still, Tado has plans for improvements. Next year he'll begin a complete inventory of the department's evidence storage room, which hasn't been undertaken since the 1970s. Tado also wants to begin looking at acquiring refrigeration units that will allow storage of DNA evidence.

McCoy, who continues to offer advice to Tado on visits to the department, supports his protg.

"Changes like this open a lot of doors for advancement," McCoy said.

McCoy had not planned to retire at 50, but he said he felt compelled to leave five years before reaching the mandatory retirement age. The chief was not responding to his unit's needs, McCoy said.

Requests for a third staff member were dismissed, even though his unit's workload had grown to more than 1,200 cases a year.

McCoy said he tried to get the department to purchase a chemical hood to handle noxious fumes and odors in the department's lab but was denied. Requests to pay for additional evidence collection training were also ignored.

"But the chief comes up with a way to outfit everyone with tape recorders," McCoy said.

Despite losing about $300 a month in retirement pay, McCoy chose to leave the police in July.

At his retirement party last week, Ratliff said he had considered leaving since early this year. He waited until he reached 55, so he could retire without any loss of benefits.

Ratliff has no plans to stop working, but he said it is time for him to work somewhere else.

"My ways of achieving department goals differ from some of the administration's," he said. "I thought it was best to part company rather than cause problems."

Ratliff declined to elaborate on his differences with the administration.

Although Hetzel expressed regret at losing experienced officers, he noted that the top leadership at the department remains unchanged. Capt. Steve Strong is still in charge of the field operations bureau, while Capt. Randy Roddy runs the support services bureau. Strong has been a police officer 24 years, while Roddy has 22 years service.

"The management of our bureaus is still in place," Hetzel said. "We are just bringing in new mid-level managers."

RETIRED OFFICERS

The following veteran officers retired from the Cape Girardeau Police Department in 2000:

* Lt. John Brown, 30 years

* Lt. Dennis Dolan, 30 years

* patrol officer Kenny Graham, 27 years

* patrol officer Freddie Ford, 19 years

* evidence supervisor Bob McCoy, 27 years

* Lt. Dale Ratliff, 30 years