201 East Main Street
Portageville, MO 63873

Police Station: 573.379.5500
Police Station Fax: 573.379.5802

PORTAGEVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT
THEN AND NOW……
PORTAGEVILLE POLICE CHIEF RONNIE ADAMS

The date was early February, 1960, when the current building housing the Police Department was deeded over to the City of Portageville by the J.V. Conran estate during J.C. Wilson’s tenure as Mayor. The city was delighted to have this 1,500 square foot structure provided, which, at that time, was an abundance of space for police department employees….there were only two….yes, a “FORCE OF TWO”… Police Chief Joe Moore was assisted by a staff of one… one night watchman, so 4 offices, 2 cells and a break room provided plenty of space for our department as well as the Probation and Parole Officers.

In looking back at policing operations in the early 60’s, we see even more startling and diverse challenges Chief Moore faced. Even though he had been charged with the responsibility of protecting our citizens, no police car was provided for responding to calls for assistance.…they walked. Making matters worse, they had no dispatcher to assist with communications. They were “paged”, if you will, on telephones located on poles throughout the community. They could be dispatched by way of these phones which would buzz when they were needed. After all, they were on foot, so they could hear the phone. They would then access the telephone, take the call, get the pertinent information and respond as needed, giving new meaning to delayed emergency response time. Times were tough for my predecessors.

Police operations here in Portageville changed tremendously by 1980 when I was elected as Police Chief. At that time, Chief Moore retired and left me with a staff of 6 full time officers, two cars, inside telephones and one dispatcher. The one thing that did not change, however, was our accommodations. The expanded Police Force operated out of the same 1,500 square foot space, with the Probation and Parole Officers and we all began to feel the crunch.
Individual interrogations and private consultations were almost non-existent. Meetings with more than 2 or 3 participants simply could not be held at the station.

Twenty five years later, we have found it necessary to expand our force even more in order to respond more efficiently, to more calls and to a much wider array of problems. In 2005, I am assisted by a Team of 11 full time, sworn and professionally trained officers, 2 part time officers, four dispatchers. In addition, our department has three vehicles equipped with VRL radios with repeaters and radar. All Portageville officers have individual pagers and multi- frequency portable radios, some of which have been obtained with proceeds from the numerous local fundraisers our Force holds each year.

Our personnel continued to operate out of that same tiny, “4- office space” headquarters, which originally housed only 2 officers. Conditions were, at best, less than desirable and at times almost impossible. No private interrogation rooms existed and rooms made available had paper thin walls. Concurrent and multiple emergency situations add insult to injury, forced Police Department personnel to literally take turns with these minimal private offices in order to receive and process a larger than usual number of suspects, witnesses and prisoners. The very nature of these situations rendered it impossible for us to predict when we would need extra working space and therefore could not be handled in as professional and efficient manner as we would have liked.

But, it is with pride that I say, on June 1st, 2005 all that changed. It was on this day the expanded Portageville Police Department, an 18 member team, moved from it’s home of more than 45 years to it’s new location….a building with more than 7,800 square feet with 8 offices in which to conduct private and separate interrogations and confidential interviews. The new structure has encased within it’s walls a brick E.O.C. room and “sally port” to facilitate receiving and processing prisoners. A large board room has been included for training and meetings and will seat approximately 30 participants, with additional facilities which will accomodate up to 50 participants. Kitchen facilities and separate public/prisoner and employee restrooms round off the accommodations in our new Police Station.

As well, our Department has been updated with the best equipment available today including Interoperability capabilities, the MULES identification system, new Dispatch console and DSL computer access.

Chief Moore would be pleased to see how a 1960’s, under-equipped department of 2 has matured to the level of present day…… Truly, a professionally trained “FORCE OF 18”, backed with state of the art capabilities and accommodations.