Cape PD to Curb New Year Celebratory Gunfire and improve community safety

CAPE GIRARDEAU Mo. (KBSI) – New Years Eve is just right around the corner and celebration time is kicking in as Cape Girardeau is planning to have fireworks and fun all night on New Years Eve. 

Cape is allowing fireworks to go off for one hour between 11:30 p.m. on the night of December 31 till 12:30 a.m. in the morning on January 1 of 2025. 

Police are strictly advising no use of celebratory gun fire which is a common occurrence of New Years Eve and the Fourth of July. 

Silver and gold lighting up the sky to kick off a New Year right. Cape Girardeau has been celebrating the holidays all month long with exciting events taking place downtown. 

With a fun New Year right around the corner local police also want to make sure everyone is celebrating safely at the same time. 

Public Information Officer for the Cape Girardeau Police Department, Bobby Newton says that celebratory gunfire is a common occurrence that happens around this time of year, and it can cause serious damage that they usually find out the day after. 

“Celebratory gunfire for New Year’s. We encounter this every year on New Year’s and 4th of July. folks want to go out at midnight and fire their guns off the air. Like I tell everybody what goes up must come down. And where those bullets landed, nobody knows,” said Newton. 

It can be difficult to be able to tell the difference in sound of the fireworks and gunfire at the same time. Cape Girardeau Police has something new this year to be able to spot the difference. 

“Times we can’t tell. It’s the sound of either the fireworks or the gunfire. It’s the sound of it. Sometimes there is a distinct sound difference. Other times there’s not. However, with our ShotSpotter technology that is able to distinguish between the two, to where we know what, what we’re responding to if it’s fireworks or gunfire,” said Newton.

Newton explains why having this ShotSpotter is so important to be able to spot the gunfire that goes off. He says a lot of damage can come from simple shots fired that are usually spotted the day after and sometimes it can cause damage to homes, cars, even humans. 

“A lot of property damage, from, from that. So, we respond to a lot of property damage, cause a lot of times just to the day after, you know, individuals go out to their vehicles and say, hey, my window was shot out, my vehicle was shot. Whatever the case may be. So, a lot of times it’s a delayed report or we actually find the victim of the incident,” said Newton. 

Cape PD investigates any celebratory gunfire as much as possible and with the ShotSpotter technology it will be able to pinpoint the exact location of where those shots were fired. 

With celebratory gunfire Newton explains that it can lead up to an arrest as unlawful discharge of a firearm. They encourage people to celebrate the holidays safely and are encouraging the community to heavily report any suspicious activity during the New Years. 

“So, we highly encourage you and reinforce that it is against the law to do that in the city of Cape Girardeau,” said Newton.