NO-CUSSING ZONE NOW ENFORCED IN PERRYVILLE

PERRYVILLE -- Police are asking residents here to watch their mouths.

At the request of Police Chief Eugene Besand, the City Council passed an ordinance earlier this year barring obscene language in public.

"The wording was outdated in the old ordinance," Besand said.

The words in the ordinance were brought to Besand's attention by other words, used more loosely and with greater hostility, in city park facilities and other public gathering places.

"We've had a lot of problems in the community, like around the library and swimming pool," Besand said. "People were being a nuisance and we didn't have an ordinance."

The police chief cited specific troubles that city workers experienced during confrontations with teen-agers and others in parks. He didn't repeat what was said.

"People were complaining, and we didn't have a law we could enforce," Besand said.

City attorney David Beeson wrote an ordinance defining obscene language based on a similar one in Wisconsin and U.S. Supreme Court guidelines.

Perryville's ordinance defines obscene speech as: "language that the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find as a whole, appeals to prurient interest; and language that describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct, actual or simulated, normal or perverted; and language that a reasonable person would find, taken as a whole, lacks serious literacy, artistic, political or scientific value."

Use of such language in Perryville's public places can be punished by up to three months in jail and a fine as high as $500.

The ordinance was needed to allow police to handle more graphic, obscene uses of language at places such as Perry Park Plaza, Beeson said.

Police in other parts of Southeast Missouri handle obscene language differently.

Sikeston does not have a specific ordinance aimed at spoken obscenities, said police Lt. Dan Armour, but it does use other charges to curb foul language.

Police will listen for loud, profane language used in the presence of women and children, and apply charges of disorderly conduct and peace disturbance accordingly.

"We'll usually give someone a warning," Armour said. "Then if they don't stop, we'll make an arrest."

A charge of refusing the reasonable request of an officer may also be used, he said.

Cape Girardeau police will enforce the city noise ordinance and peace disturbances, but it has to be careful about free speech rights, police Lt. Dennis Dolan said.

"You might be out with your wife in a restaurant and a few tables away, even if someone is saying foul, vile things, that's their freedom of speech," he said.

Cape Girardeau's noise ordinance is violated when someone can be heard yelling more than 50 feet away, Dolan said.

A Cape Girardeau man, complaining that noise from car stereos had broken windows in his home, asked the City Council to expand the noise ordinance to include obscene language in 1998. The ordinance was not expanded.

Sikeston police handle foul language with common sense, Armour said, since people do have a right to free speech.

"The bottom line with most laws is to maintain order," he said. "If we don't take care of minor infractions, sometimes they'll blow up into big ones. Knowing how to handle this comes with training and experience."

Perryville police will apply their new ordinance where it's needed, Besand said.

"You can take the example of someone at a park watching a baseball game," he said. "We would take action if a person was using profanity on a regular basis. Then the next time, that person will have something to think about."

Perryville police have not had an opportunity to use the ordinance yet, but as baseball season approaches that might change, Besand said.

"Sometimes adults tend to forget they're at a kids' baseball game," he said.