A letter to the Sergeant

Sgt Kinnison:

To tell you a little about myself, I am a 25 year old local business owner. I am about to have my first child, due in September, with a wonderful woman.

This is a letter of appreciation. I have called on the Cape Girardeau Police Department more in the past month, than I have ever called on any police department in my life.

Due to a series of random events I have needed the support of my local police. Someone who worked for me was caught stealing money and forging checks, I called on the Cape police for their help. A police officer came to my office and handled the situation with respect, courtesy, and sympathy. I asked many questions and became better educated on my options. He led me to making a difficult decision that is the right decision to be made, of prosecution.

Then I saw two stray dogs running around my neighborhood, I got them into our fenced in backyard and called on for your help again. Eventually the owners were found and the dogs returned to their family.

This past Saturday night at 130 at night, Nathan, my girlfriend's brother was home alone at our house. He heard strange noises, leading our dogs to bark and our toads around our pond to go quiet. There were a series of random events that took place that lead to a certain level of paranoia in him. He called on me with fear that maybe someone was attempting to break into our house. I came running home, and again, called you for your help. It took literally 4 minutes for a police officer to come and assist us. He checked through our house, our garage, even our tool shed to make sure we were safe. He said he would continue to check on our area for the remainder of his shift and was to inform any other officers in our area to double check for us. He was polite, took responsibility, and was respectful to us. I apologized many times, the last thing I wanted to do was waste their time, especially at a busy hour as 1 am on a Saturday night likely is for him, but I wanted to be safe, not sorry.

The previous weekend my open aired Jeep was broken into and vandalized to a certain degree, my radio was taken. It was more of a nuisance than anything else. I called again for your help and someone came, filled out the report and let me get on my way quickly, as it was a Monday and I needed to get work done. He was respectful, even though it was an incredibly minor thing to worry about.

One night, I was staying at my small apartment downtown in my office, Moxy was unusually loud way after they closed, and there were teens in the street listening to their car stereo incredibly loud at around 2:30 in the morning on a Thursday night. It was impossible to fall back asleep. I made a polite call asking if someone could just move them on their way. I do not believe they were doing anything illegal, or by any means in the wrong, it was just too late for that kind of sound. A police officer came, diffused the situation, and it literally was done within ten minutes. I could hear what the officer said; he was kind to them and was respectful to me.

Fact is, no one had to be nice to me, but each officer that I have dealt with has been above and beyond wonderful to me. I want you to know that I am very much appreciative of this.

You don't expect to have such great service from your city's police department. You should be very proud of your entire team. For me, my experiences this past month have been unique and challenging. However, I have had the support of my local police department, and that has helped me immensely.

It is important to me, as a local business starting out to understand the impact of my community around me. I will only last if there is a stable community that can support me. And that I can accommodate a need in my community, something I am working very hard every day to try and accomplish. It's wonderful to know that my local police department is working so hard every day, doing the little things to keep us all safe.

Be very proud of your team, they have done more than I, or I am sure many others expect of them. I am proud to say the Cape Girardeau Police Department is my police department.

Thank you for keeping Cape Girardeau safe. I am happy to know that my soon to be child, will be born in such a safe and secure community, keep up the great work, and know that if you ever need anything, any level of support, you have it from this local business owner. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey Lage

The Consultative Marketing Group

573-587-6234

112A N. Main

Cape Girardeau, MO 63701