PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIVISION

Through our Crime Prevention Program the community is provided with informational and educational crime prevention programs for schools, businesses, and community organizations. The crime prevention officer’s responsibilities include the training and coordination of the department’s Volunteer Program and Citizen’s Police Academy, conducting tours of the police building for school and community groups, conducting business and residential security surveys, and participating in annual community safety events and school career days.

Neighborhood Watch Program

Your Neighborhood Watch will only function and be as good as your neighbors commitment to the program. Contact the Police Department Public Affairs Unit at 335-6621 for information on how to start your own neighborhood watch.

Starting a Neighborhood Watch:

• Distribute anti-crime information to citizens within your neighborhood or community regarding how to prevent and deter crime.
• Hold public meetings with your local law enforcement agency about crime in the community and what can be done about it.
• Conduct home security surveys to help detect and prevent fellow citizens’ homes from being burglarized.
• Welcome new members to their neighborhood and encourage them to join in the Neighborhood Watch Program.
• Set up a special watch or escort for senior citizens or other potential victims.
• Provide "McGruff Houses" for young people to go to after school or in time of an emergency to avoid being hurt or mistreated.
• Develop a special "vacation watch" program, where specific attention and observation is placed on the residences that will be vacant when the occupants are on vacation.
• Contact the local newspaper and/or media for public attention regarding the crime prevention efforts in your neighborhood.
• Have an "Operation Identification" program, where citizens within the neighborhood mark their valuables with identifying markings, so they can be recovered if stolen.

Neighborhood Coordinator Responsibilities:

• Make sure each residence has Neighborhood Watch literature and a valuables property record so they can start marking and recording their valuable property and making their homes more burglar proof.
• New neighbors are brought into the program and appropriate literature is given to them.
• Be the representative of your block to the Cape Girardeau Police Department Crime Prevention Officer for continued updates on literature, and crime information in your area.

Neighbor Responsibilities:

• As a neighbor, your main job is to be observant of anything that may be suspicious. For example, a strange car in the neighborhood, suspicious people, etc.
• Get to know your neighbors. Learn when they will be on vacation and pick up their mail and newspapers for them. REMEMBER: Always make homes appear as if someone is at home.
• Call the Cape Girardeau Police Department on any suspicious circumstances at 335-6621 or 911 for emergencies.

Watch and Report in Your Neighborhood:

• A stranger entering your neighbor’s house when it is unoccupied.
• Strangers or strange cars in the neighborhood, school, or parks.
• A stranger carrying appliances, household goods or other bundles from your neighbor’s home or yard.
• Person’s loitering in secluded areas.

Watch and Report in A Business or Office Area:

• Broken or open windows.
• Persons entering or leaving a business after hours.
• Persons displaying weapons such as guns, knives, etc.
• Persons walking down the street, looking into parked cars.
• Any vehicle parked by a business with the motor running.

Watch and Report in Any Location:

• Persons who get out of the car and leave in another with apparent haste.
• Anyone removing accessories, license plates or fuel from a parked car.
• Persons involved in fighting.
• Any injured person you observe.
• Persons screaming.
• The sound of breaking glass or any loud explosive noises.
• Persons offering merchandise at ridiculously low prices. It may be stolen property.

Reporting Procedures:

Many conditions are such that immediate police assistance is not needed.  You may want to document information on suspicious vehicles and persons in the area.  This information can be passed on to the Crime Prevention Unit where it will be referred to the appropriate division for investigation.

The Cape Girardeau Police Department would like to thank you for your support and interest in this very important program.  For more information contact the Public Affairs Unit at 573-335-6621.

National Crime Prevention Council Home Page

Citizen Police Academy

The Cape Girardeau Police Department’s Citizens Police Academy (CPA) is designed to familiarize citizens with the daily activities of the Police Department and enhance the spirit of cooperation between the Police and the community. The CPA creates a greater awareness and appreciation of the challenges and decisions faced by law enforcement officers each day. The commencement of the Citizens Police Academy coincides with the implementation of the Police Department’s “Police-Community Volunteer Program” and covers a wide variety of law enforcement related topics during the eight week curriculum, including a departmental overview, operations and programs, criminal and traffic laws, patrol and investigations, community policing, crime prevention, crime scene processing, personal safety, and much more.

For more information on the next Citizens Police Academy, contact Corporal Ike Hammonds at 573-335-6621, Extension 1124. 

Volunteer Program

The “Citizens Volunteer Program” is a direct result of the Citizens Police Academy, established in late 1997. The program augments the department in areas where commissioned police officers are not necessarily required. The volunteers have provide hours of volunteer time while performing such tasks as filing reports, arrest records and summons, micro-filming, numbering case files, assisting with bad check complaints and failure to return rental property complaints, coding fingerprint cards, processing film, completing mailings; fingerprinting citizens, and other administrative duties.

Safe Communities