By Susan Redden

sreddenr@joplinglobe.com

WACO, Mo. — Cora Ulmer, who has run Ulmer’s Grocery in Waco for 44 years, said there was a day when routine patrols by sheriff’s deputies through her community were uncommon. Not so today.

“Almost every day I see one go through here,” she said of the patrols. “I do know they are here through the daytime and you can see them, and when we are out driving we see patrol cars more.”

“I feel safer,” she added.

Ulmer believes the promise of more patrols made to voters who were asked to support a one-fourth cent sales tax has been kept.

Phyllis White and Camilla Cupp at State Line Flea Market on Missouri Highway 171 near the Kansas line said they have seen a difference.

“Yes I have. For the better,” said White.

“We see them up and down here a little bit more,” added Cupp. “They’ll even stop in here once in a while just to make sure everything is going good and check in on us.”

Cupp said she also sees more patrols near her home on Kafir Road.

While the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department has more workers in most operations, a new building and added technology, increasing road patrols in rural areas of the county was a primary goal of the added revenue, according to Sheriff Archie Dunn. Most residents surveyed at random by the Globe said they had seen an improvement.

Hannah Wolf, manager of Pappa’s Pizza north of Webb City along Missouri Highway 96, said they see patrols more frequently now than they did a couple of years ago.

“I see them once or twice a week now; I don’t think we hardly used to see any,” she said.

Patrol zones

Patrols should be more visible since the sheriff’s department has more officers and has gone to zone patrols, said Sgt. Derek Walrod, who supervises the patrol division. The department currently has 25 patrol officers and that number will go to 29 when four new officers complete training, he said.