Mary Barton resigned as St. Louis County police chief in July. John Hayden announced his February 2022 retirement in September. Photos by Cheyenne Boone and Michael B. Thomas.
St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden speaks during a news conference to announce his plan to retire in February 2022 at St. Louis City Hall on September 8, 2021. Photo by Michael B. Thomas
ST. LOUIS — A search for a new chief to lead the area’s largest law enforcement agency has quickly become a political standoff. And months after the top cop of the second-largest department abruptly resigned, the hunt to find her replacement hasn’t even started.
St. Louis police Chief John Hayden announced in early September he would retire Feb. 23 after four years as chief.
Since then, the search for a new chief has fueled conflict between two divisions of city government involved in selecting a replacement: Mayor Tishaura O. Jones’ administration and the city’s personnel department, a uniquely independent bureau not directly answerable to the mayor’s office.
The two have clashed over the job’s qualifications, a list of rejections as well as the current finalists for the job, multiple Jones administration and police officials have told the Post-Dispatch.
Meanwhile, in St. Louis County, there is still no active search for a new chief more than four months after Chief Mary Barton abruptly retired July 30, after accepting a $290,000 settlement to resolve a gender discrimination complaint.