Police chief Blair talks new programs, staffing needs at Pachyderm Club meeting

Wes Blair, Cape Girardeau Police Department's chief, said Thursday, Sept. 21, local law enforcement agencies have a good working relationship.

"This is a great place to work in law enforcement because there really is cooperation and collaboration between our agencies. You don't see that in a lot of places," he said at a meeting of Southeast Missouri Pachyderm Club. "In the Dallas metropolitan area where I came from, there was an auto theft task force for the sheriff's department, and there was one for a bunch of municipalities, and they wouldn't even share information with each other because they didn't want the other people to get credit for arrests."

No such dynamics are present in Cape Girardeau County, Blair said. He cited that as one of the main reasons he's spent the last decade working in Cape Girardeau.

Blair said the law enforcement in the region have a culture of taking care of the community. Officers interact with civilians at neighborhood roll calls and coffee socials with police.

Blair said his officers, through social media and podcasting, are working to build greater connections and keep people informed of how the department operates.

Mental health initiatives

According to Blair, one of the things he's most proud of as chief of police is developing a mental health co-responder program within the department.

First responders are often called to deal with mental health episodes but aren't always equipped to deal with them. Starting in February, the department began having two social workers respond to incidents alongside officers. These are professionals with mental health degrees who can get people who need help the support they need in ways officers alone could not.

"To get them there in front of a person who's out there dealing with something is a game changer for us," Blair said.

He added the department is looking to add more professionals to bolster the program.

"My guys have been keeping statistics on what the average cost of a hospital stay is, the average cost of a night in jail plus officers' time and all that. Since February ... we have saved the community $2.6 million in diverting people away from hospitals and jails and getting them the help that they need," he said.

He also detailed how the department is helping its officers in regard to their mental health. Blair requires them to meet with a counselor every two years and hosts yearly mental health seminars.

Policing technology

In addition to new programs, Blair praised new pieces of technology which have become instrumental in helping his officers. One of these, ShotSpotter, is an audio system that alerts officers to the precise location of any gunshots it detects.

"It's one of the most amazing pieces of technology I've ever seen," Blair said.

The department currently has more than 3 square miles of audio coverage. Officers and the dispatch center receive notifications usually within 30 seconds of reported gunfire. Blair said the system is accurate enough to track not only when and where a bullet is fired, but even the direction it traveled.

Blair also extolled the virtues of the Flock Safety license plate reading technology. With almost 40 cameras deployed across the city, officers can input license plate numbers or even descriptions of vehicles and receive information on where and when those vehicles have been seen.

Blair said the department was able to stop a suspected hit man from killing someone a few months ago by tracing the individual's vehicle through Flock Safety images.

"I can't think of a better success story than (preventing) a murder with a piece of technology," he said.

The data only lasts a couple of months and there are policies in place to prevent it from being used to track individuals who don't need to be tracked, Blair added.

He said it's important for the police not to break their community's trust.

Department pay

When Blair was finished speaking, he took several questions from the audience. Many of these were compliments or concerns about various department activities. One such query related to the size of the police force.

Blair said the department is currently down 12 members from its authorized strength of 80, an improvement from the 20-member deficit it had faced in 2022.

Officers' pay does need to increase, he added, though he was denied a request to raise their pay by 9% and was told by city leadership there wan't money available for that. A 3% raise was approved.

The starting pay for new officers at the department is $44,600 per year, Blair said. The department institutes a pay step increase every five years.

This can make outside hiring of experienced officers difficult, as Blair said he didn't want to create friction between incoming officers with more than five years' experience and existing ones close to that pay raise.

"We've crept up to where we're relatively competitive to our area ... but we do have to step that up, not just for us but for everybody," he said.