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Hanging up his hat: Rapert retires after 34-year career law enforcement — 29 of those with DPS
SIKESTON — Rick Rapert always knew he wanted to be a police officer.
“I had an uncle who was a Missouri state trooper that I saw as a kid growing up,” Rapert said of the late Bennie Rapert. “I was around law enforcement and knew that’s what I wanted to do.”
Today, Rapert, a captain with Sikeston Department of Public Safety, marks his official last day of employment with the department where he has spent the past 29 years, working his way through the ranks and ultimately overseeing the fire division.
“It’s time to hang up my hat,” said the 55-year-old Rapert, who opted to retire after a nearly 34-year career in law enforcement. “… I’ve worked hard and long, and things have worked out and fell into place for me to retire now.”
Rapert comes from a long line of family members who’ve worked in law enforcement.
In addition to his uncle who worked in the Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control for 30 years, some of Rapert’s close family members served as auxiliary police officers and deputy reserves, and his son works full-time in law enforcement today.
“My dad, grandpa and uncle were hard workers. They were men who were well respected in the community and worked in jobs where they did a service back to the community — and that’s what I was accustomed to seeing,” Rapert recalled about his career path.
Rapert’s career in law enforcement officially began in January 1985 as an auxiliary police officer for the department of public safety in his hometown of Charleston.
His uncorrected eyesight kept him from joining the Highway Patrol, Rapert said.
“My left eye vision was beyond their standard, but I got into local law enforcement where the standard wasn’t as stringent,” Rapert said.
As an auxiliary officer, Rapert helped supplement the workforce of the full-time police staff while working a full-time job as a grocery store manager.
Under Charleston DPS, Rapert completed the Patrol’s Academy training.
Then in November 1986, Rapert was hired full-time as an officer for Charleston DPS. He worked full-time until August 1989 when a friend of his who worked at Sikeston DPS told him about an opening and encouraged him to apply, Rapert said.
“I applied and my official hire date was Aug. 14, 1989,” Rapert said.
One of Rapert’s fondest memories in his career was during a joint law enforcement roundup in Sikeston with the Highway Patrol, and he was able to work with his uncle before his retirement in 1991.
“I think that I’ve done the right thing and made a difference to a lot of people,” Rapert said, reflecting on his career. “That was my goal: to come to work, do the right thing and treat people the way I want to be treated. You treat people with respect in order to get respect. That’s how I do business. That’s how I’ve done business every day I’ve been here the past 29 years.”
He credited his father for instilling those beliefs in him at a young age.
“My dad told me: ‘No matter what you do in life — whatever you do — you treat people the way you want to be treated. You do what’s right and not what’s easy. And if you want respect, you have to give respect.’ He said: ‘If you do that, no matter what you do, more than likely you’ll be successful,’” Rapert said.
For Rapert, his father’s advice has made all the difference in both his life and career.
Rapert, who said he’s been told by others he has the gift of gab, recalled a time when a rookie officer said to him after they arrested someone while the rookie was in training: “I really think you could talk a person into standing on their head while you put handcuffs on them.”
“He said: ‘How do you do it? You can talk people down to where they put their hands behind their backs,’” Rapert recalled.
Rapert said it goes back to the Golden Rule his father reinforced in him as a child. “If you treat people with respect, more than likely, you’ll get respect back,” he said.
Rapert said he’s passed those words of wisdom on to others —but it’s their choosing if they do it or not.
“I want to end my career on a distinguished note and pass it to the next generation and let them carry on,” Rapert said.
And Rapert is leaving on a distinguished note as his career will end without him ever having to use lethal force. He’s had close encounters before, but nothing that resulted in someone’s death.
“You have to revert back to your training and provide the best services for what you can and what you’ve been trained to do,” Rapert said.
Rapert noted while his love for the job never altered over the years; the ways of doing his job did. From handwriting reports to advances in radio communication, law enforcement has also been impacted by technology over the past 30 years.
“We had to handwrite notes and now you can enter them in a computer system in a patrol car,” Rapert said.
He recalled the process of writing reports. From their handwritten notes, officers would create a report outline before spending hours writing the final report, he said.
Radio technology has also improved. Years ago radio communication between officers located across town from each other didn’t have the signal to communicate. In a day when many people had scanners in their homes, Rapert said officers would have to tell their dispatchers which payphone in Sikeston they were closest to and the dispatcher would call them at that pay phone to take down information.
Improvements in radio communication, which can now be done across the state, along with cell phones have vastly improved the communication among officers, which has made patrolling a much more efficient job, Rapert said.
“It’s unreal. really It really makes you wonder what it will be like in the next 30 years,” Rapert said. “Maybe the days of Dick Tracy will come to life.”
Among the hardest aspects of his job have been those involving deaths, Rapert said.
“Nobody wants to see anyone dead, especially children,” said Rapert, who’s worked many crash and fire scenes. “… The average person has no idea what we see,” he said. “As law enforcement officers, we don’t always see people at their best and often must be an instant social worker in cases. We all still put on a uniform and come back the next day,” Rapert said.
In the days leading up to Rapert’s final day of employment with DPS, he served as a mentor to Capt. Austin Henley, who took over as head of DPS’ fire division on Aug. 19.
Rapert said he’s also anticipating enjoying retirement life.
He and his wife, who is a traveling nurse, plan to see sights of the United States. They already have visits scheduled to northwest Missouri, Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, Washington, D.C., and the Bahamas.
In his years of protecting and serving others, Rapert missed many holidays and other special occasions— something that he doesn’t regret or complain about— but he is excited about it.
He’s excited about having more free time to devote to his wife, children and grandchildren.
Rapert said: “I want to see some of the things I missed over the last 34 years.”