Public safety highlighted in periodical

SIKESTON -- A nationally-distributed magazine for law enforcement agencies is highlighting the Sikeston Department of Public Safety this month.

The August edition of FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin features an article written by Sikeston DPS Director Drew Juden entitled "The Sikeston Department of Public Safety: How One Community Joined Two Forces."

"It's a magazine that's published by the FBI that talks about trends in law enforcement across the country and provides intelligence information for local and state law enforcement," Juden said.

During the application process for the bomb squad grant, a friendship grew between Juden and Roland Covington, special agent in charge of the FBI's St. Louis Office, according to Juden.

"He became very intrigued with our agency and how we function differently than a traditional police agency," Juden said. "He prodded me and encouraged me to write this article -- he thought it would be interesting to other agencies. After seeing the way we operated, he wondered why more police agencies and fire departments across the nation don't operate this way. ... He was very impressed."

In the article, Juden explains how the Sikeston City Council combined the city's volunteer fire department with the police department into a single department of public safety in 1976 and how it has benefited the community.

There are probably only six to 10 other DPS agencies in the state, according to Juden. "I'd be surprised if there were 500 in the United States," he said. "There's probably less than that."

DPS officers "are cross-trained in both disciplines (police and fire) and may be assigned to either," Juden said.

Juden said there are definitely benefits to having firefighters who can also see things with a police officer's eye and a police officer who can see things through a firefighter's eye.

An obvious example is in arson case.

Juden said a firefighter who is only a firefighter may destroy evidence of arson when fighting the fire whereas a firefighter also trained as police officer "tends to be more cognizant" of what might be evidence and can work toward preserving potential evidence while fighting the fire.

Another benefit of a DPS, Juden said, is that it provides a way to address burnout issues without losing personnel: a member of his DPS can be shifted from the police division to the fire division or from the fire division to the police division with no additional training.

Juden said City Council members have continued to embrace and support the DPS concept over the years -- especially since it makes sense financially.

"It saves the community roughly $1 million a year by having a combined police and fire department as opposed to separate entities," he said.

Juden said there are barriers that other many communities have to get past to combine their police and fire departments as Sikeston has done such as police and fire unions. The biggest barrier, he said, is the "age-old feud" between police and fire fighters that is often found elsewhere. "They tend to not get along," he said.

The article was actually written about a year ago but he has to sign a non-disclosure agreement, Juden said, "so I couldn't even talk about it until it came out."

Now that he has seen the article in print, "I thought it turned out really well," Juden said. "I'm very pleased with the article and it speaks highly of the community and our agency."