THE PUBLIC MIND: CURRENT CITY POLICE STAFFING IS CALLED INTO QUESTION

To the Editor:

This letter is to address the problem of the shrinking number of police officers actually patrolling the city streets. Eight years ago, before the Show Me Center, the annexation of Interstate 55 including the land west of it, and before Ashland Hills, there were approximately 65 police officers with 9-10 officers patrolling the streets daily. Today Cape has less than 60 officers on staff and only 4-6 officers patrolling the city streets at any one time. This is a reduction of 50 percent of the officers that patrol the cities streets. Evidently police officers, or people concerned about the safety of people, are not making the decisions about the police department. Plus, the reduction of patrolling police officers comes at a time when the city has over a 23.8 percent surplus of money in the bank, according to the audit done by the International Firefighter's Union (Feb. 1992), while Moody's On Municipals states cities need 5 percent-10 percent surplus of funds.

What does it mean to have six, or less, officers on the streets at any given time. If there is a police call requiring two police officers or police cars, then there are less than four officers patrolling the entire city. The town is divided into four zones and each zone gets one patrolling officer. The dividing lines for the zones are Independence Street and West End. Zone One is everything north of Independence, and west of West End. This area includes all of Perryville Road, Cape Rock Drive, Ashland Hills, Woodland Hills, Northfield, North Kingshighway, Westfield, Arena Park, etc. Just how much area can one officer cover? What if an officer on the south end of town needs assistance, how long does it take for assistance to arrive, 10, 15, 20 minutes? If your children need assistance, how long does it take?

On top of all this, recently, three officers were fired then offered a position at less wages. This can not be good for morale. Plus, with three officer positions removed, there is less room for advancement. It is becoming more and more apparent that the police department is not run by police officers, but by city administrators that could care less about the city's safety.

Jon Kasten

Cape Girardeau

Editor's note: Capt. Steve Strong of the Cape Girardeau Police Department said in 1984, eight years ago, the department did not have 65 police officers. To his knowledge they have never had an authorized strength of 65 officers. He believes 60 is the most they have had.

The number of officers patrolling the city can vary from day to day, shift to shift, and also between shifts, he said.

There are occassions when there are only four officers patrolling the city, but this is not the norm; this is minority of time, he said. Because of factors such as vacations, sickness of an officer, an officer needing to be in court, Strong said, they may be forced to operate with this number.