ANTI-CRIME EFFORTS PAYING OFF IN CAPE

A decline in major crime last year in Cape Girardeau demonstrates that police are on the right track in their efforts to make sure the city continues to be a safe place to live and work.

For the first time in five years, major crime dropped in Cape Girardeau, falling 14.6 percent from 1996 to 1997. Major crime includes murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, burglary, stealing, vehicle theft and arson.

Last year there were 2,658 major crimes in Cape Girardeau, 455 fewer than the 3,113 in 1996. Particularly impressive was the decline in murders, rapes, robberies and assaults. They dropped 29.4 percent, from 136 in 1996 to 96 last year.

Not since 1993 had the number of crimes in the city fallen from one year to the next. In fact, between 1993 and 1996, crime had risen by one-third -- from 2,336 incidents in 1993 to the 3,113 in 1996.

Police Chief Rick Hetzel cited a spirit of cooperation between Cape Girardeau citizens and police in helping to bring about the decline. He particularly cited the success of the Crime Stoppers program that was instituted some seven months ago.

That program, which pays rewards to tipsters for information that leads to convictions of criminals, illustrates what can happen when the community gets involved with police in fighting crime. The program, which gets its money from citizen and business donations, already has resulted in information that has helped solve 11 crimes, including a string of burglaries at the homes of elderly people.

A problem that won't go away is the use and distribution of illegal drugs, which account for many other types of crimes including thefts, robberies and assaults. Police estimated that as many as 95 percent of the major crimes can be linked to drugs either directly or indirectly. When the numbers of those illicit activities are reduced, even more significant reductions in crime statistics can be expected.

Cape Girardeau police and the community have shown that a joint attack on crime is working. It is being done successfully at home, not through federal involvement or with federal money and programs.

And it is at home, with involvement of people close to the problems, that progress is made.