JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – St. Louis Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Tracy was at the Missouri Capitol on Tuesday, meeting with the Kehoe administration as his department transitions to one that is controlled by a governor-appointed board of police commissioners.
In an interview with FOX2 after the meeting, Tracy said that he was optimistic about the progress being made over the last couple of years and that the job of a police chief doesn’t come with 100 percent certainty.
“(The Kehoe Administration) has given me confidence, but it’s up to the board of commissioners,” Tracy said. “They’re the ones that have the ultimate say.”
“Right now, I am Saint Louis Metropolitan Police Chief,” he said. “And then hopefully they believe the job that’s being done and they will agree with it when they make a decision, when (the new board of police commissioners) is in place.”
He shrugged off another question regarding if his job is safe.
“It’s a volatile position, always,” Tracy said. “Here’s the optimism: the type of policing we’ve been doing the last couple of years, that hasn’t changed.”
The chief also praised the work being done by his officers.
“The officers are going out and driving down crime, as you can see from our CompStat reports,” he said. “The city is seeing a lot of reductions in all crimes, not just in homicides.”
He encouraged residents to check out the crime statistics for themselves at slmpd.org/stats.
“You can look at everything that I’m telling you right now,” he said. “We’re very transparent where crimes are happening.”