Street Crime Task Force may have caused shootings to fall in Cape

Cape Girardeau appeared to be heading toward a deadly summer when Cape Girardeau police opened two homicide investigations within hours of each other May 19.

Cape Girardeau police found the body of Domorlo Morris McCaster, 28, about 4 p.m. that day in a wooded area near Ranney Park. McCaster's body had been dumped after he was shot and killed about five days earlier. At 9 p.m. that day, Andrel Dolpin, 17, was shot in the chest in the 200 block of Lorimier Street and died later at a hospital.

At the time, Cape Girardeau Police Sgt. Adam Glueck worried hotter temperatures would lead to shorter and more homicidal tempers. Homicides are more common in June and July across the country.

But since Dolpin was shot, only one shooting has been seen in Cape Girardeau -- on July 2, when three victims were shot downtown but survived.

Overall, in Cape Girardeau, violence cooled as temperatures have risen.

Cape Girardeau police attribute the decrease to the work of the multi-agency Street Crime Task Force that used two-man patrols in high-crime areas in Cape Girardeau, Sikeston and Charleston, according to Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Clark Parrott.

The task force ran an operation from June 12 to July 9 and made more than 200 arrests. Seventy-two of those arrests were driving while intoxicated and drug-possession cases and 40 were felony arrests, Parrott said.

"You take 40 felons off the street, that's a huge bonus," Parrott said.

Parrott compared the task force's effect to seeing a trooper on the road.

"You're going to slow down," he said. "If police presence is greater in our neighborhood, you're going to go somewhere else."

One of the advantages of the Street Crime Task Force is it encourages agencies to communicate about offender movement, Parrott said. Patrols have been rotating among Cape Girardeau, Sikeston and Charleston and have not allowed offenders to operate without harassment.

"Criminals don't have jurisdictions," Cape Girardeau officer Richard McCall said. "You get into places where law enforcement is not sharing intelligence, and criminals win."

Parrott said violent crime in Sikeston and Charleston has dropped as well. But it wasn't entirely crime-free there. Larry Weaver, 66, of Pittsburg, Kansas, was kidnapped in Sikeston and slain in New Madrid County in late June. Jay Harris, 31, of Sikeston was shot and killed near Roberta Rowe Park in Sikeston.

Sikeston Department of Public Safety Capt. Jim McMillen said he had not studied whether the Street Crime Task Force had an effect on crime in Sikeston.

Charleston Department of Public Safety director Bob Hearnes could not be reached for comment.

Parrott said the cities can reactivate the Street Crime Task Force if the need arises.

"One thing that's so nice is all the law-enforcement agencies in Southeast Missouri work so well together," Parrott said. "We're all on the same team, and we're after the same goal: keep our communities safe."

bkleine@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3644

Pertinent address: Ranney Park, Cape Girardeau, MO