Writing parking tickets with a friendly smile

From the description of Sgt. John Hayden in a 1974 Southeast Missourian article, I get the impression he applied the “Sheriff Andy Taylor” approach to policing. Andy, of course, was Andy Griffith’s character in the 1960s television show that bore his name.
Hayden, like Sheriff Andy, seems to have made it a point to know those people living and working along his beat, and freely bestowing a smile and a kind word to brighten someone’s day.
The Missourian published a picture page featuring Hayden in one of its earliest Sunday editions. While the story isn’t by-lined, I would bet it was penned by photographer Gordon L. McBride, who took a lot of really nice photos of the officer. Several months after the feature was published, another article announced Hayden’s retirement.

Published May 19, 1974, in the Southeast Missourian:

‘OFFICER HAYDEN’ — IF NOT WELL-LIKED, THEN WELL-LOVED

While Sgt. John Hayden may not be one of Cape Girardeau’s most well-liked citizens, he is certainly one of the best-known and, to those who know him, he is certainly one of the most-loved.

Sgt. Hayden, a 62-year-old veteran of the city police force, has the unlucky lot in life of being the man who roams the city streets ticketing cars that have overstayed their welcome in front of city parking meters.

Now this may not be the most dangerous line of duty for a policeman, though it does not come without its hazards — hazards, particularly, to the human spirit.

It is not infrequent that while in the process of ticketing and overparked vehicle, Sgt. Hayden will be confronted by the car’s owner. This can mean that the owner will quickly slip a penny into the slot and look demurely at the 6-foot-plus Officer Hayden, begging behind childlike eyes for clemency.

Though his brow may look foreboding and his cigar offensive, behind it lurks a broad smile that can always be kindled with a kind word. (Gordon L. McBride ~ Southeast Missourian archive)

Writes on

This would work with most people. Not with John Hayden. He continues writing the ticket as the frustrated offender looks on.

Some people are more good natured about it; particularly those who have learned over the years that the bear-like, cigar-smoking policeman means business when he reaches into his back pocket to retrieve the pad containing the red tickets that can be spotted any weekday on car windows up and down Broadway and Main Street.

Others learn slowly. Officer Hayden says that he still encounters the offender who will come rushing up while he is writing a ticket and after discovering that it doesn’t work to slip a coin in the meter, will then begin to argue.

“I never say a word,” the sergeant says almost gleefully. “I just write out the ticket, stick it on the window and walk on. I don’t even look back.”

When the red flag goes up, the ticket goes on — that’s the sergeant’s philosophy!

Though his brow may look foreboding and his cigar offensive, behind it lurks a broad smile that can always be kindled with a kind word. (Gordon L. McBride ~ Southeast Missourian archive)

While Sgt. Hayden has become somewhat hardened in his attitude about parking violations over the year, his feelings about people are warm and his presence on the street adds a degree of security that would not be there without his rangy figure.

To many people, he is almost a grandfather. He can tell stories about the children who years ago followed him up and down the streets, their pockets and stomachs filled with green apples. Today those people are parents of their own children.

Today’s generation of youngsters are introduced to “Officer Hayden” who is as protective of them as he was of their parents. It is not unusual to see the sergeant at a public event holding the hand of child who has been temporarily separated from his parents.

Fixture

The man dressed in blue has become as much a part of the picture of Broadway as the levee that lies at its eastern edge. Walking down the street during the day, every fourth or fifth car honks and a smiling face is aimed at his direction. He, in turn, returns the compliment with the grin that is distinctly his.

Sgt. John Hayden chats with druggist Bill Smirl during a quiet moment one spring afternoon recently. Smirl is a bit of a model airplane enthusiast. Hayden takes a natural interest in whatever it is that people are doing that makes them happy. (Gordon L. McBride ~ Southeast Missourian archive)

Merchants stop him to chat about their hobbies or troubles; old friends find him to complain about a pension plan or the death of a friend, people with legal problems seek his free counsel.
To the unknowing, Sgt. John Hayden is probably just another cop. To those who have lived in Cape Girardeau, “that traffic cop” is as important to this city as the Mississippi River.

Published Aug. 30, 1974, in the Southeast Missourian:

SGT. HAYDEN RETIRES; WALKS BEAT MORE THAN 20 YEARS

By CECELIA SONDERMAN
Missourian staff writer

After more than 20 years of “walking the beat” either as a regular patrolman or a parking meter division officer, Sgt. John A. Hayden today completed his active duty with the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

Sgt. Hayden, 62, will have a month’s vacation before his retirement becomes effective Sept. 30.

His service to the community was not limited to his time in uniform. He spent 5 1/2 years as public works commissioner after being elected to the City Council under the former commission form of government.

He said he plans to fish, do some visiting and raise roses. “I want some flowers. I have a cabin at Horseshoe Lake, Illinois, and my wife and daughter love to fish as much as I do,” he said.

Sgt. Hayden joined the department July 19, 1948, after spending 5 1/2 years with the federal police protecting government property in St. Louis. (U.S. Cartridge Plant, according to his obituary. - Sharon) Prior to that, he served 2 1/2 years with the police department at Oran where he was born and reared.

The first three years on the Cape Girardeau Police Department, he said, his pay was $130 per month. “The first raise I got was $10 a month. I’ll never forget that.

“I walked the beat and was assigned to the Good Hope area until I thought that was the all of Cape Girardeau. There were seven or eight taverns and about 500 drunks on a Friday or Saturday night,” he said.

There were three men on a shift and he relieved the desk sergeant when the latter had days off.

He was a sergeant assigned to parking meters when elected a commissioner in April 1960. He reported back to the same position as a sergeant the day after leaving city office in 1965.

“I like the job (parking meters). I like people. I like to talk to them. I guess I’ve talked with more children than anyone on the police force. I always try to say a few words to them so they will know that a policeman is the man to go to when they need help,” Sgt. Hayden said.

He has seen many changes on the police force, mostly in size and equipment. “When I first came on the force, there were 11 men and three shifts and one police car that wouldn’t run half the time. If you got a block away from the station, you couldn’t get anything on the patrol car radio; it sounded like Donald Duck, so you would run to a telephone and call in to see what was happening. Now, we have 52 or 54 men on the force, at least seven cars and a good communication system. That information center machine is the smartest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said.

He was referring to the National Crime Information Center equipment through which police can check a person by name on three levels, national, state (Missouri Uniform Law Enforcement System or MULES) and the director of revenue license check.

“Laws have changed considerably and I think this makes it more difficult to be a policeman,” he said.

Sgt. Hayden and his wife, Mabel (Stuckey Hayden), reside at 2527 Ranchito. She recently retired after selling their business, the Bib and Tucker Shop on Main. They have two children, Ronald of New Haven, Connecticut, who travels the Far East as a sales manager for Winchester, and Mrs. Malcolm (Karen) Shack, 1617 Independence, and three grandchildren.

Contact with people is a major reason for Sgt. Hayden’s replacement wanting the job as a parking meter officer.

Ptlm. James L. McLain, 931 W. Rodney, will begin Tuesday working with Sgt. Burl R. Statler, who has been a parking meter officer for a number of years. He has been on the force seven years, assigned mostly to patrol car duty and, at times, on the desk…

John A. Hayden, 75, passed away Tuesday, Aug. 11, 1987, at the Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau. His widow, Mabel Stuckey Hayden, died Friday, July 20, 1990, at the Lutheran Home at the age of 74. Both are buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Cape Girardeau.

View a photo gallery of Gordon L. McBride's pictures of Hayden that didn't make it into print here.