CITY POLICE CHANGE THEIR STRIPES: SQUAD CARS HAVE NEW DESIGNS

~Correction: 1792 on design does not refer to the date of the design of the Missouri state flag; that was 1913. 1792 is the erroneous date adopted by the police department for the founding of the city.

Cape Girardeau police are changing their stripes ... on their cars, that is.

The problem with the old design was not the visibility factor of the cars - most agree that city police cars are easily identifiable.

"We were seeing a lot of cars in departments all over the country with the same design as we had," said Officer Danny Niswonger. "We wanted something more unique to Cape Girardeau."

So Niswonger and two other officers, Ken Rinehart and Brian Ritter, with the blessing of Police Chief Howard Boyd Jr., sat down to design a new decal for the squad cars.

"We decided to go with something similar to our (shoulder) patches," Niswonger said. "We take a lot of pride in our patches they say a lot about the city."

For those who have never seen a Cape Girardeau police patch, take a look at the doors of the new police cars. The patch highlights many aspects, which sets Cape Girardeau apart from other river cities.

It features the Missouri state flag and the year 1792, the year Marie Watkins Oliver created the design for the state flag in Cape Girardeau; blue waves and a paddle wheel, symbolizing the Mississippi River and boat traffic that gave life to the area; and Common Pleas Courthouse majestically overlooking the river.

"We sat down with an artist from (Auto Trim Design) and worked out the details," Niswonger said.

Highlighting the patch design on the sides of the police cars are red and navy blue reflective striping. The emergency number to the police department is highlighted in red, reflective striping. The navy blue striping replaced an earlier attempt at royal blue bars stretching the length of the car.

Some of the cars are also switching from the clear light bars atop the roof to the red and blue, high-visibility light bars.

So far four of the newer cars and one older model have been converted.

"Not everyone is happy with the new design," Niswonger said. "More seem to like it than dislike it, but we knew we weren't going to be able to please everyone."

To get the general gist of what people in the department wanted, the striping committee circulated questionnaires to senior, patrolling and traffic officers.

"We tried to draw some conclusions from the responses we got," Niswonger said. "A few of the officers liked the cars just as they were; some wanted to go back to traditional black and whites."

Niswonger said black-and-white squad cars posed a problem after the cars were circulated out of the patrol division, when they are stripped of the decal striping and the light bars are removed.

"It's hard to have an unmarked car that's painted black and white," Niswonger said. "It would pretty well be a dead giveaway."

Whether the officers like the design or not, the new striping is going to save the department money as the new cars are adapted.

"We aren't going to change over any of the old cars - that would get expensive," Niswonger said. "I wish we could do them all at once, but it's going to have to be gradual.

"But that's good in a way," Niswonger said. "We can fine-tune the design; make it better as we go along."

Niswonger said that people have stopped him during patrols in the new police cars and commented - favorably and unfavorably - about the design.

"One lady asked me what department I was with," Niswonger said. "It's just going to be a matter of getting used to the different look."

Boyd said he was pleased with the new design, but the striping isn't the only thing that will be changing with future police cars.

"As of 1994, all passenger vehicles will have dual, side air bags," Boyd said. "Our newer cars have a driver's side air bag, but now they'll have a passenger side air bag, too."

Boyd said that the change could pose a problem for the placement of equipment within the police cars.

"Specifically, radar guns, rifles, video cameras and two-way radios could be in the path of the passenger side air bag's deployment," he said. "Law enforcement agencies are aware of these upcoming changes and have been discussing how to configure the inside of the car so as to provide optimum accessibility to the officers and keep it out of the way of the air bag.

"The air bags are designed to save lives; we don't want to inhibit their ability to do so," Boyd said.