Cape PD chief shares insight on hires; Gov. Parson calls for special session to address crime

This is Part 2 of an interview with Cape Girardeau Police Chief Wes Blair.

At the center of the George Floyd death in Minnesota was a police officer with multiple red flags on his record, a system where officers could get lost in the paperwork, and a union that traditionally makes it more difficult to terminate the employment of an officer.

In my recent interview with Cape Girardeau Police chief Wes Blair, we spoke about why these things matter and how Cape Girardeau can avoid a similar situation.

Though there is no police union in Cape Girardeau, Blair said he had a firsthand look at the civil service challenges in Texas, where he worked before coming to Missouri.

To remove a police officer in Texas, Blair said, the chief would make an employment termination recommendation and the officer could appeal to a third-party arbitrator.

"And this third-party arbitrator, who is not even part of your community, makes the decision on whether or not the officer gets fired," Blair said.

Arbitration wasn't limited to issues of termination. Even giving an officer the day off could be an action eligible for arbitration -- a costly process for the local community, he said.

In arbitration, each party can have seven people struck from the list. Arbitrators don't want to be known for always siding with the department or the officer. It almost became like a quota, Blair said.

He gave an example where a sergeant and a female officer had an affair. As her superior officer, the sergeant had to write up the female officer for an infraction and she subsequently accused him of sexual assault. During the course of the investigation, the female officer recanted her sexual assault accusation.

The department recommended termination of both employees: The sergeant for having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate and the female officer for perjury.

Both officers went to arbitration with two different arbitrators. While the department thought both should be fired, they expected if one wasn't, it would be the sergeant. Other than this lapse in judgment, he had been a good officer. The female officer, however, had broken a cardinal rule of policing: She lied.

The firing of the sergeant was upheld while the female officer was granted her job back.

In Cape Girardeau, if an officer's employment needs to be terminated the chief can make the decision without a binding arbitration process. The officer can appeal to the city manager, but Blair said all of his firings have been upheld.

To prevent a George Floyd situation in Cape Girardeau, Blair said leaders have to weed out the bad cops before a bad situation arises.

"You know, one of the things that is so important in a police department is your first line supervisory level, your sergeants. Because they're the ones who are out working with those officers day in and day out, and they're the ones that should be picking up on officers' behavior and, you know, is this officer one that pushes the line? Or is this one? Is he having some personal problems at home? Or is there something going on with him that we need to look into or address before we get to that level?"

Blair said Cape Girardeau has the luxury of having "some pretty good sergeants" who know their officers.

"We've also got the body cameras, and we do random routine reviews of those. So that would weed an officer out, too."

Unlike a major metro, Blair said it's harder here to get "lost in the shuffle of the paperwork." In Cape Girardeau, an officer is not going to get to the point of having 18 disciplinary actions and still be working like the offending cop in Minneapolis.

Blair said Cape officers are also good about self-policing, noting he's had officers tell him if there's someone they don't feel comfortable working with.

"And we'll look into that, especially, you know, through our field training program. We really weed people out pretty well through that because they're with the training officer the entire time."

Blair differentiates skill problems from heart problems. A skill problem can be addressed with training. A heart problem, however, is not going to be tolerated. A racial issue, for example, is a heart problem. Telling a lie, no matter how insignificant, is a nonnegotiable.

"If you lie about something, you're done. We don't even talk about it anymore. That's an automatic termination."

Blair said the Cape Girardeau Police Department goes through a detailed background investigation of would-be officers. They also go through a psychological assessment.

Several of the Cape Girardeau police officers teach at the SEMO Law Enforcement Academy. Blair said a couple years ago there was a student who officers spoke highly of and suggested Cape try to hire. But the candidate failed the psychological assessment.

Blair said they wrestled with it, because the candidate checked the other boxes. Ultimately, they were not going to take a chance on making a potentially problematic hire.

"I don't know. Maybe it was just a bad test, but we're not gonna take a chance on you. We want to keep the integrity of our department."

Anytime an officer has to use force, there is a report that is completed. Pepper spray, hand-to-hand combat, taser, baton and even the act of drawing a gun if it's pointed at someone constitutes "use of force."

The supervisor reviews video and writes a report. If it's justified, he sends a report through with his recommendation that it was justified. It then goes to the patrol commander, followed by the assistant chief and ultimately Blair as the chief.

"So we've got a pretty robust tracking system and chain of looking at all of our use-of-force reports," Blair said.

Going through the process the department is able to identify training issues.

All police departments need to have a level of introspection, Blair said. And those who don't, "they're naive, or stupid or lying," he said.

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In a previous column, I shared chief Blair's comments about Missouri's Constitutional Carry law and how it has in some ways tied the hands of law enforcement, particuarly in the case of juveniles. Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Welker confirmed Blair's assessment in a recent interview.

On Wednesday, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson called for a special session of the General Assembly beginning July 27. Parson wants the legislature to address several violent crime issues, with three of six proposals involving juveniles and weapon violations.

Parson is right to bring attention to Missouri's violent crime problem. Hopefully the legislature will take meaningful action to help police and the courts crack down on violent crime.

Lucas Presson is assistant publisher of the Southeast Missourian.