Police hope a $10,000 investment in a solar-powered speed monitoring device will help reduce the community's economic loss from vehicle accidents, reported to total last year an amount equal to half the Cape Girardeau city budget.

The device believed to be the only one of it's kind in Missouri was obtained Thursday through a state grant awarded to the Cape Girardeau Community Traffic Safety program, said police. It is expected to hit the streets around the first of September.

Inside the device a small, white, stand-alone trailer-like unit is a computer and printer, Cape Girardeau police St. Carl Kinnison said. He said the self-contained unit will permit police, without an officer on site, to track all vehicles traveling past it. A generated report will tell police later when most of the speeding occurs, he said.

Sgt. Al Moore, head of the police department's traffic division, said an officer can then be put at the site during that time period or periods to enforce the speed limit.

"It's quite an investment," he said, "but it will save us on manpower because we won't have to put an officer out there all the time.

"It's going to be a big help. Basically it is another tool we can use to reduce the number of accidents."

A primary purpose of the unit, police said, is to let people know what speed they are driving as opposed to the posted speed limit. That's accomplished through numerals that are flashed by a shutter arrangement like those on some sports scoreboards, said Moore. Meanwhile, the posted speed limit is displayed above on a speed limit sign.

Above the speed limit sign is the solar panel that helps to keep the unit's battery charged. Moore said the battery can also be charged by electricity.

In addition to displaying the speed of vehicles, the unit can tell police about the volume of traffic through a certain area, said Moore.

The traffic safety program's assistant coordinator, Donna Boardman, said the device is worth $10,000 and she expects it to improve local traffic safety.

"Frequently people are speeding and don't realize they are speeding. This will help raise their awareness," she said.

Said Kinnison, "The majority of people who are speeding will slow down simply by realizing they're exceeding the posted speed limit."

Moore said the economic loss to the community from vehicle accidents is "astronomical." In 1991, he said, the costs related to property damage, injuries and fatalities, with medical and insurance factored in, came to an amount equal to half the city's budget. The city's budget in 1991 came to about $25 million.

A police vehicle will be used to pull the unit to the chosen site for a minimum of 24 hours, Moore said. At first, he said, the device will probably be used in the area of Lexington Avenue. Police have received a lot of complaints about motorists speeding through residential areas there, he said.

Tuesday morning the new unit sat on the back lot of the police department. Later this week the unit will be taken to Trim-Line to be striped and lettered, said Moore.

The device was purchased from Custom Signals of Lenexa, Kan. Authorization for the purchase came in January through the Missouri Division of Highway Safety, following submission of an application for the grant last summer by the traffic safety program, Kinnison said.