ST. LOUIS (KMOX)--Chief Robert Tracy says he is in talks with Missouri Governor-elect Mike Kehoe about state control of the city's police department.
"We're allowed to disagree," Tracy told KMOX. "It doesn't mean professionally just because people disagree doesn't mean we don't talk to anyone."
Kehoe made it clear, during a press conference last week, that state control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department would be a priority of his administration.
"I believe [Kehoe] wants the best for Saint Louis," Chief Tracy said, "but I don't think state control is gonna be this magical thing that's absolutely going to get us over the hump."
Chief Tracy recalled statistics from the FBI and his department that show crime numbers going down in some categories. The monthly National Incident Based Reporting System report for October shows decreases compared to October 2023.
•Crimes against a person: -15%
•Crime against property: -31%
•Crime against society: -7%
•All other offenses: -17%
"I feel like politics is coming back in," Tracy said, "and that's not good for policing. It's not good for public safety and it's not good for our citizens.
The idea of state control would be to place the oversight and management of the police department under a state-appointed board of commissions, rather than the city. Chief Tracy is concerned about state control which, he says, hurts the progress that has already been made.
"I've never worked under state control," Tracy said. "I've only known local control and when I say that the places of my track record, why I've been chosen to come here have had that success under local control."