NIGHT OUT: POLICE KEEP PEACE ON THE STREETS

To an outsider, the communications center of the Cape Girardeau Police Department looks like a scene transplanted from an episode of Star Trek.

Computers, phones, recording machines, printers, video screens and a hodge-podge assortment of other electronic equipment stud the walls of the small room.

Two women sit at the helm - divided by a control panel of telephones - to link the patrolling officers with the community at large.

In the middle of the night, a smattering of dedicated police officers canvass the streets and alleys of Cape Girardeau, watching over its citizens as they sleep.

On Thursday, Sgt. Ed Barker of the Cape Girardeau Police Department was on the second of a 15-day cycle working the night shift: 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.

At the start of the shift, a series of calls split the seven-car force, drawing them to different zones of the city.

First, a security alarm went off in a local business. Two officers arrived on the scene a few short minutes after the call went out.

When the owner arrived, the officers accompanied him in a check of the premises - scanning for intruders.

After a thorough sweep of the building, the officers determined the alarm was set off by accident - perhaps a dip in the power, the wind at the door or a simple malfunction of the unit.

The officers waited until the owner re-locked the building and departed before they continued their patrols.

Just minutes later, the station received a call from a frantic woman, reporting a break-in in progress.

By the time the police arrived a few minutes later, they had a description of the suspect and his car and the direction in which he might be headed. They found a corner of a window broken out, and a woman in bedclothes standing on the front stoop.

The officers quickly surrounding the building, checking exits, searching for the suspect. Another officer went to the address of the alleged suspect to await his return.

As officers surveyed the damage and gathered information for a report, the woman told the officer in charge that she did not wish to press charges against the suspect - a former boyfriend.

The officers had nothing left to do but leave.

A short time later - sometime after midnight - officers were called to the other side of town, responding again to a report of an intruder in a residence.

Five officers in four squad cars arrived on the scene in quick succession. The alleged intruder was surprised by officers who met him at the door.

The man was handcuffed, read his rights and placed into the passenger seat of a nearly squad car by two officers. The officer who was driving pulled a seat belt across the chest of the suspect, another the other officer got into the back seat of the car behind the suspect.

As the man was taken to the police station to be booked, the shift lieutenant arrived with a camera and other evidence-gathering equipment.

One officer photographed the residence, while another talked to neighbors who reported the intruder to the police.

The deadbolt had been dislodged; the door around it splintered beyond repair.

The person who lived there had gone away for the weekend and was being contacted by police headquarters. The resident was told to call the phone in her apartment to speak with the police officer in charge of the investigation.

The landlord, summoned out of his sleep by the dispatcher, arrived about 30 minutes later. By the time he arrived, there were only two officers left in the building; one preparing to leave.

The last officer remained behind until the landlord could relock the door.

The officers who had left the break-in scene, were immediately summoned to another region of town, where another break-in was in progress.

The woman who lived in the house had fled to a neighbor's home, called police and insisted she would not return until police had checked the whole house for an intruder.

The dispatcher updated the information to the police, telling them that the woman didn't actually see a person at her front door, but still insisted that police secure her home.

A lull settled over the radio after the disturbances had been quieted.

There was an occasional report of an accident, the ambulance service transporting a patient taking over the air waves temporarily, radio traffic from the Cape Girardeau Sheriff's Department interjected from time to time.

Someone tried to take a corner too fast, collided with a light pole and tore up about 100 feet of a ditch while attempting to back out. The reporting officer took the information from the driver while they both waited for a tow truck.

About the time the bars close, the action picked up again. Police officers were stretched thin responding to a steady stream of reports of fights, assaults and other disturbances.

The crux of the evening occurred when an officer called for backup when pulling over a man suspected in an assault. The reporting party told the dispatcher that the suspects might have a gun.

Officers stood behind the suspect's car, shielded by a police car, hands on their weapons, ready for the worst.

They ordered the suspects out of the car - one at a time - and then initiated a complete search of the vehicle. Grife, the police dog, was called in to sniff for controlled substances.

Other officers kept passerbys back from the area, watching over their shoulders at the scene transpiring behind them.

When nothing was recovered, the suspects were released with summonses for the assault that had been reported.

The officers went their separate ways and did not reconvene for the remainder of the night.

The streets became eerily quiet sometime after 3:30. Headlights from an occasional car temporarily split the darkness, arousing the attention of an officer passing by.

A handful of patrons were seated in Hardee's, a few shoppers walked the aisles of Wal-Mart, Del-Farm, Schnucks and other 24-hour stores.

The convenience store in the south side of town - the scene of an altercation earlier that night - was bustling with activity even in the wee hours of the morning.

Even the area around Good Hope Street - the location of numerous drug arrests - had quieted down and people on the streets had gone home, avoiding the light mist that began to fall in the cold night air.

Officers spent the rest of the night - when they were not being called to another location - scanning local businesses with spotlights, ensuring that burglars are not taking advantage of the shopkeeper's absence.

"This job is 90 percent boredom, eight percent excitement and two percent cold fear," Barker said. "And there's nothing that I'd rather be doing."