<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2H7Tux_1GqBkx1200" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2H7Tux_1GqBkx1200" width="1920" height="1280" ><figcaption>Downtown Cape Girardeau's Broadway Street features a mix of historic buildings and local businesses. The downtown district acts as a center for shopping, dining and entertainment of Cape Girardeau, Mo. Photo by Asher Owens</figcaption></figure>Since the beginning of the semester, there has been one shooting downtown on Sept. 27 that caused the injuries of two SEMO students and the death of a 17-year-old, a rape in the dorms and a shooting at the Village on the Green apartments on Oct. 10, just across the street from the Show Me Center.This caused citizens to speak out at a recent city council meeting regarding their concerns about gun violence in the Cape Girardeau community.Cape Girardeau Police have given flyers to downtown businesses that outline changes they are making to downtown security following the Sept. 27 shooting. Some of these changes include: more three-officer patrols downtown, the purchasing of e-bikes for officers, the purchasing of four additional solar-powered remote cameras and two drones dedicated to downtown.Interim chief of campus police Jason Morgan said that after the shooting, the university police will increase patrols downtown for students' safety, particularly on weekends between 10:00 pm and 2:00 am, as part of a potential partnership between the University Police and the Cape Girardeau Police Department.“I'd say at this point be more patrol-based, whether that be in a vehicle or on foot; time will tell. I think both can be effective. I think mobile patrols and the foot patrols are both effective. It's just we're going to have to again work with the Cape PD, determine with them what's the best time for us to help them,” Morgan said.The College of Policing found that increasing police presence in high crime areas decreases crime by 9%.Morgan said that while he considers no amount of crime to be normal, crime on SEMO’s campus has been average compared to past years.“The few or rare instances of violent crimes do occur on campus. It tends not to be student-on-student. It tends to be more that someone from outside the university community comes onto our campus and commits that crime, so I would say, thus far, it's been fairly typical,” Morgan said. “Any time a violent crime happens on our campus or even around our campus, obviously it's a concern for us, but it's nothing that we've not seen in the past. So I wouldn't say it's atypical.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=24zFpJ_1GqBkx1200" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=24zFpJ_1GqBkx1200" width="960" height="1706" ><figcaption>Graphic by Jo Mitchell</figcaption></figure>According to SEMO’s 2026 Security and Fire Safety Report, the most common violent crime on campus in the past few years is rape, with zero in 2023, one in 2024 and four in 2025.It was also reported, in the section “violence against women,” that there were zero instances of “dating violence” involving SEMO students in 2023, one instance in 2024 and then 16 instances in 2025.Overall, the most common disciplinary referrals the Campus Police make are regarding liquor law violations, with 47 being made in 2023, 18 in 2024 and 44 in 2025.Morgan said university police currently send emergency warnings through the Regroup App.According to their website, Regroup is primarily a mass communication app that “alerts across multiple communication channels, including email, SMS, voice, Regroup mobile app, desktop and more—all from a single platform,” and it is how the university primarily sends its SE alerts to students.“We send out information such as safety tips and that sort of thing. But also, what we really do is send out emergency notifications, right? So if there's a perceived danger or a possible threat near our campus, what we will do is notify faculty, staff, and students of what the threat is, and then the best responses for that.” Morgan said.Morgan recommends students download the Regroup app because it not only sends mass alerts from the Campus Police but also helps students share information with the police and allows police to temporarily track the locations of students who want extra protection for a short period.“If you got a student getting off work at 3 a.m. and they're parked you know a block from their dorm, what we'll do if they contact us is we'll come put eyes on them when they leave their vehicle and watch them walk back to their dorm, and we'll keep an eye on them until they actually get back into the building,” Morgan said. “...We can track them, and we can actually put eyes on them and see them move into the into the building or their room, what have you. Then when they're to that safe point, they can hit a button and notify us that they've made it safely.”Vice president of enrollment management and student success Stephen Schultheis said the university will be having a meeting with the Cape Girardeau Police Department to discuss how to make the city safer for students.“We definitely recognize that there have been some incidents that have taken place, and our students, we have to take care of them and make sure that they're feeling comfortable to be able to not just be here on campus, but go downtown to enjoy the city life, to have a good time, and feel like they can really have a whole college experience,” Schultheis said.</div></body>

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Since the beginning of the semester, there has been one shooting downtown on Sept. 27 that caused the injuries of two SEMO students and the death of a 17-year-old, a rape in the dorms and a shooting at the Village on the Green apartments on Oct. 10, just across the street from the Show Me Center.

Police increase security after downtown shooting

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Since the beginning of the semester, there has been one shooting downtown on Sept. 27 that caused the injuries of two SEMO students and the death of a 17-y

Police increase security after downtown shooting

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