Strategies, community voices highlight first Gun Violence Task Force meeting

Assistant police chief Adam Glueck addresses the Gun Violence Task Force's questions during its first meeting Tuesday, July 23, at City Hall in Cape Girardeau.

Nathan Gladden ~ ngladden@semissourian.com

The City of Cape Girardeau’s first Gun Violence Task Force meeting focused on an introduction to work being done by the Community Partnership of Southeast Missouri to prevent gun violence and the Cape Girardeau Police Department’s Gun Crime Taskforce and overview of crime data.

Community Partnership of Southeast Missouri executive director Melissa Stickel, who is a member of the Gun Violence Task Force, explained at the group’s meeting Tuesday, July 23, what the organization is doing to prevent gun violence. She said part of the organization’s efforts has been trying to bring people together and “strengthening people’s voices to end firearm violence".

Stickel said Community Partnership was able to secure funding from the Missouri Foundation for Health to help in the group’s work.

"It’s really about demonstrating the need. And obviously, we’re all here because we have great need. It’s evident by recent tragic events that we’ve got to do something,” she said. “Part of our hope tonight and being involved in this committee is that we can understand what the city’s doing, what people here are doing and that we can be distinct in our activities, but also complimentary.”

Stickel said the organization is not looking at policies but wants to hear solutions from a variety of people. She said they’re doing this to get a better understanding of what’s holding people back from solving the issue in the community.

Stickel said while the group won’t really be presenting solutions, members will create a space where people can discuss possible solutions. She also noted that the organization has a staff member who has been personally affected by gun violence and has been a “great asset” to them.

According to the committee’s topics for consideration, it will hear more from Community Partnership as well as other not-for-profit organizations.

Police perspective

Assistant police chief Adam Glueck, who will take over as interim police chief when Wes Blair leaves the position in August, presented an overview of crime rates for the task force along with what the department’s gun crime task force does.

Glueck said the gun crime task force has been a joint operation that was the “brainchild” of Cape Girardeau Prosecuting Attorney Mark Welker, who has been working with law enforcement officials across the county.

Glueck said the gun crime task force has also been working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Drug Enforcement Administration; SEMO Drug Task Force; and detectives in each agency to investigate crimes.

“The focus is to investigate violent gun crimes and violent career criminals,” Glueck said “The criteria is there must be a pattern of violent gun crimes, and then they cover the geographical area Cape Girardeau County.”

He noted the gun crime task force is on the enforcement side of the operations and does not deal with prevention.

Southeast Missouri University president Carlos Vargas asked Glueck whether the university’s Department of Public Safety could be included on the gun crime task force, and Cape Girardeau Public Schools superintendent Howard Benyon also expressed interest in the district’s school resource officers being involved in the gun crime task force as well.

Glueck also went over certain parts of the department’s annual report that involved crime statistics. The committee asked questions about the department’s NIBRS data, which brings together information on all of the criminal offenses committed in the year.

Committee member Leslie Washington, representing Moms Demand Action, an anti-gun-violence group, asked how often the database of these offenses is updated. Glueck said while the data is noted with a police officer’s report on a case, the information is submitted to the FBI on a yearly basis.

Glueck said in league with the other technology the department uses, such as ShotSpotter (audible gunshot tracking) and Flock (license plate reader) technology, police can apply this data.

“So once we can plot that (activity) on a map, and I know the mayor has mentioned hotspot policing before, you know that’s something that we use this information for if we can figure out where it’s happening and we can direct resources to those particular areas,” Glueck said. “But at the same time, we use that information to help direct our patrols to where they need to be.”

He said while there are duplications in the data he presented, he believes what is categorized as weapons violations are strictly that — “not necessarily robberies or murders”. The police department will also continue to have presentations to the Gun Violence Task Force as it continues to meet.

Future meetings

The group’s members also split into smaller groups at the meeting and discussed what they would like to see specifically brought forward by presenters and other community ideas.

Some of the ideas included wanting to hear from other not-for-profits such as Moms Demand Action; questions about what laws for gun possession look like on the federal, state and local levels; webinars for some presentations before they meet in person so the committee members could have more detailed questions prepared; more in-depth police data regarding weapon violations; community celebrations that honor victims; and hearing from the faith-based community on these issues.

The group has planned several meeting topics for coming months. In August, it will explore criminal justice; issues affecting youth in September; city ordinances in October, community through the lens of social, not-for-profit organizations and health in November; and workshopping ideas and solutions for the City Council in December.

Meetings for the Gun Violence Task Force will be the first and third Thursday of every month at 7 a.m. at City Hall, 44 N. Lorimier St.

Mayor Stacy Kinder formed the group. Other members are co-chairman Adam Kidd; co-chairwoman Jessica Hill, executive director of Safe House of Southeast Missouri; Benyon; Cape Girardeau Public Schools assistant superintendent Josh Crowell; Nita DuBose; Alix Gasser, development director of Southeast Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence; Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce president Rob Gilligan; Ritter Real Estate’s Jared Ritter; Cape Girardeau Central High School principal Nancy Scheller; Lee Schlitt; Laura Selbo; Stickel; Adrian Taylor; Cape Girardeau County Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy; former City Council member Shannon Truxel; Vargas; Amber Walker; Lynn Ware; Washington; and Tina Wright.

Non-voting city liaisons on the task force are Kinder, city manager Ken Haskin, Glueck, city public information manager Nicolette Brennan, city clerk Gayle Conrad, police Co-Responder Unit’s Shannon Farris, fire chief Randy Morris and assistant city manager Trevor Pulley.