A national search for city Public Safety Department director after interim director Dan Isom leaves the role Feb. 11, 2023 to take a position with the Ameren Corp.
Charles Coyle, a 45-year veteran of the St. Louis Fire Department has been tagged as his replacement while the search, which could take three to six months according to Mayor Tishaura Jones, is completed.
Jones, who will select the new director, said Isom served “with patience, passion, and integrity.”
“I asked him to join me for ‘a spell’, [and he served almost two years.] While there is work to do, under his leadership the department is better now than when he found it.”
Coyle is now responsible for the police and fire departments, and the ongoing challenge of helping the city reduce violent crime. This includes the new Office of Violence Prevention.
“I will be working hard every day at the Public Safety division to keep our neighborhoods and families safe,” he said Tuesday during a press conference at City Hall.
Coyle now also oversees the corrections, excise, building, neighborhood stabilization, emergency management divisions.
Isom is a former St. Louis Metropolitan Police Officer who rose to the rank of captain, a position he filled from 2008 to 2013. He was CEO of REJIS, a criminal justice data company, when Jones asked him to return to public service in 2021.
“It was an honor to come back to serve the City of St. Louis after serving as the police chief,” Isom said. “We have been working to change decades’ long practices.”
“I truly believe Mayor Jones’ vision for St. Louis has and will continue to make our neighborhoods safer for families.
Isom is returning to the private sector as Ameren vice president of corporate safety, security, and crisis management.
Among the accomplishments he listed while working with Jones were closure of the medium-security jail known as the Workhouse, Criminal Justice Center security upgrades and working to combine the city’s 911 systems in a central location.
He also led the search for Police Chief Robert Tracy, who took office earlier this month.
“Under his leadership, St. Louis lowered violent crime rates, appointed our first outside chief, tackled long-standing issues that gave plagued city government for decades,” Jones said.
“I thank him for serving the city in this interim role.”
When asked how he would handle the relationship between police and Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, Coyle said he is “going to dig into that; find out what is going on and why.”
“I look forward to working with the other [city] leaders.”
Coyle filed a racial discrimination lawsuit alleging the city did not follow its own policies when it promoted current Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson to the position in 2007.
A jury awarded Coyle $350,000 in damages. He later received an additional $208,000 in attorney’s fees and court costs, as well as the difference in salary he would have made had he been promoted to chief rather than Jenkerson.
“That was in the past, and I’m no longer living in the past,” Coyle said.
“My focus is looking forward and being a part of any changes that need to take place in public safety and in the city.”
He said he took pride in building community and a community based [Fire] department through health drives and neighborhood meetings “to help the department personnel get to know the residents they serve.”
While the search for a permanent director will be national, like the search for a new police chief, internal candidates have been encouraged to apply.
Rachel Lippmann of St. Louis Public Radio contributed to this report.
