SIKESTON TO HIKE WAGES OF OFFICERS, ADD MORE POLICE

SIKESTON -- Crime-plagued Sikeston is fighting back by boosting starting salaries for its public safety officers and expanding its force.

Part of the expansion includes establishment of a canine unit and allocating a detective to deal solely with drug cases.

The city council Wednesday approved a new pay plan, raising the starting salary of public safety officers to $19,350, almost a $3,000 increase. The plan also raised salaries for the department's supervisory personnel.

Beginning pay for sergeants will be $27,500; for lieutenants, $32,500; and for captains, $37,500. The salary adjustments take effect Jan. 8.

The council also agreed to hire another detective, a clerk to handle the growing paperwork for the detective bureau, a canine unit officer and two more dispatchers.

The actions are the latest ammunition in the city's escalating war on gangs and illegal drugs.

"We are not ignoring it. We are not denying it. We are addressing it head on," Mayor Mike Moll said.

"It is a well-known fact throughout the area that Sikeston has been a community where drugs can be sold and bought. It is our intent to reverse that," the mayor said.

Much of the crime problem is centered in the Sunset area on the city's west end.

Moll said it is essential to have a safe environment for the city's residents. "If you don't have that, you don't have jobs; you don't have a community."

In addition to the new positions, the city is in the process of hiring six more public safety officers.

The city wants to add still another six regular officers by July and is hoping to implement a community policing program that would add three to five more officers to the force. But those hirings are dependent on the city securing additional funding.

The city has applied for federal funds to set up a community policing program that would target the city's 259 public housing units, many of which are in the city's crime-stricken west end. Public safety substations would be set up at some of the public housing sites.

The public housing authority has agreed to help fund the program.

Combined, the various personnel moves would expand the number of public safety officers from 31 to almost 50, Moll said.

Increased staffing would allow the city to reopen its third fire station, which has been closed since June.

Some of the moves have been long overdue, the mayor said.

In many cases, supervisory personnel have been making less than their subordinates. The low starting salary for public safety officers, who handle both police and fire duties, has made it difficult for the city to keep its officers.

The city hired six public safety officers in August, only to lose six other officers to better-paying jobs by October, City Manager Steve Borgsmiller pointed out.

He said the salary changes will make the department competitive with other area police departments, making it easier to retain officers.

Already, five former DPS officers have asked to be rehired. "I think it will help turn the department around," Public Safety Director Jim Leist said.

STARTING SALARIES

Starting salaries for patrolman or public safety officers

Poplar Bluff, $22,488

Cape Girardeau, $19,380

Sikeston, $16,575

As of Jan. 8 $19,350

Jackson, $15,638 *

* The starting salary in Jackson could range up to $20,018, depending upon experience.