MAJOR CASE SQUAD WILL HELP BOOTHEEL COUNTIES

The formation of a major case squad in Scott and New Madrid counties should quickly prove its worth in solving crimes in the two Bootheel counties.

While the squad has not yet formally been put together, the three law enforcement agencies whose officers will become the major case squad already are working jointly in the investigations of three suspicious deaths within the past six months. The outcomes of those investigations will be important, because they will show early on how effective law enforcement can be when agencies pool personnel and resources to solve high-profile crimes.

The major case squad will involve personnel from the Scott and New Madrid county sheriffs' departments and the Sikeston Department of Public Safety. Drew Juden, the new director of public safety at Sikeston, said officers of all three agencies currently are communicating well, and the timing couldn't be better to put the squad together.

The agencies are going about forming the squad in the right way by studying other major case squads around the state. In so doing, the agencies will be able to draw from their experiences and determine how best to set up and operate their own major case squad.

Once a tool only of metropolitan law enforcement agencies, rural law enforcement agencies are discovering how effective major case squads can be. Rural law enforcement agencies particularly can benefit because most must operate with limited funding and personnel. Because of those restrictions, officers are usually kept busy with routine matters, leaving little time to probe major crimes. A major case squad gives agencies in that situation the additional personnel they need, and those officers come together early on in the investigation, when it is most crucial. And major case squads promote a spirit of cooperation among local law enforcement agencies, a positive attribute that sometimes gets lost.

The Cape Girardeau and Jackson police departments along with the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department put together a major case squad in 1983 and later expanded it to include Bollinger County and the Southeast Missouri State University Department of Public Safety. It is responsible for solving numerous crimes that might not have otherwise been solved over the past 18 years.

Law enforcement in Scott and New Madrid counties is taking an important step in their arsenal to fight crime, one they won't regret.