The motivation behind Cape Girardeau police chief Wes Blair is his 10-year-old son. When his son grows up, Blair wants him to be able to say his father cared and tried to make a difference in his community, and succeeded.

"What motivates me is the legacy that I'm trying to build," Blair says.

Making it to the level of police chief and being able work in a community like Cape Girardeau, where the community cares about being a community, is what Blair considers one of his greatest professional accomplishments thus far. Cape Girardeau citizens really want to make the city a better place, he says, which makes him happier to go to his job every day.

Blair also loves going to work each morning knowing what he is doing makes a difference.

Most recently, Blair has become passionate about working with the community to "squash" gun violence, and violence in general.

One thing for potential police officers to keep in mind is that every person officers deal with is a human, and they deserve to be treated that way. People make mistakes, and they need to be held responsible for those mistakes, Blair says, but that doesn't make them any less human.

"If you do it with compassion, you'll be a lot more effective," he says.

--Amity Shedd