Public safety a priority

This month I want to address some of my personal observations concerning public safety within our community. Do we live in a safe community? Are we as a staff and council devoted to making public safety a priority? Do we give public safety adequate resources?

First I want to recap the capital expense side of this issue. Our citizens have supported and passed by vote Fire Tax I and Fire Tax II. These initiatives have enabled our city to meet the necessary equipment and facility needs of both the police and fire departments. We now have modern, updated equipment and a replacement schedule for equipment as we move into the years ahead. One-half of the funds generated by this approved sales tax are being used for the departments operating expenses.

We have, through these initiatives, built a new, modern facility containing Fire Station No. 3, along with an emergency operations center and 911 communications center. This year we will build a new Fire Station No. 4 on Lexington Avenue to replace the antiquated station on Kurre Lane. These funds also will provide for upgrades and needed expansions at fire stations No. 1 and 2. Our new police station will be under construction this year and will replace the current station, which is undersized and outdated.

Next I would like to recap the personnel side of public safety. We have added fire personnel through a three-year grant. That grant has expired, but we were able to work those three firemen into our operating budget in order to keep them in our totals. This was done through multiyear planning, as we knew that grant would expire after three years. We have also been able to make annual salary increases and salary inequity adjustments in both the police and fire departments.

Most comments I receive from citizens revolve around the necessity to add police personnel. Since I have been mayor, we have added in past and current budgets 14 personnel to police. We added three jailers, two patrol officers, two school resource officers, two communicators, and are adding three grant-funded officers as we did with fire. I would note that all of the personnel additions stated were accomplished with no tax increase. We are also very fortunate to currently have well-trained and dedicated staffs in public safety.

I was personally disappointed at the failure of the use-tax vote last month, which will prevent our city from bringing our public safety departments up to a full complement of staff. We will continue to work toward that goal through future budgets.

However, through the very capable leadership of police chief Wes Blair, we are working on several initiatives to better connect and engage our citizens in the public safety process. He has initiated programs to include Coffee With Cops and Neighborhood Roll Call programs to engage with citizens. We also participate, through Chief Blair's leadership, in a coordinated effort with Sikeston, Poplar Bluff and Charleston, Missouri, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol to randomly execute targeted surveillance to identify and reduce crime in each of our municipalities. These programs and others will continue as we move forward to strengthen our community public safety.

Public safety is also more than police and fire. We work through the Neighborhood Development Initiative to build strong neighbors that will take action to prevent and solve safety problems. We have increased our social media and outreach to "personalize" our police and fire personnel. We have also begun initiatives to better enforce our building minimum property standards, codes and landlord licensing standards.

I submit to you, our citizens, that we are all responsible for our own public safety and that we all must commit to be engaged, support and communicate with our public safety officers and leadership to assure all of us that we do live and enjoy a safe community. I would encourage citizens to use our anonymous tip line, (573) 339-6313, to report suspicious behavior or crime. I also would appreciate and solicit any comments or feedback from you, our valued citizens.

Harry Rediger is mayor of Cape Girardeau.