Some may have forgotten what the police department was like in 2008 when St. Louis Metropolitan Police Chief Daniel Isom stepped in. But he hasn’t.
“It was difficult,” he said. “We had a towing scandal. We had officers being indicted. We had money being taken from property custody area. We had a scathing audit of the police department, and homicides were going up and up. We’ve addressed pretty much all of those issues.”
Isom announced this week that he will leave his post on January 1 to join the University of Missouri–St. Louis’ faculty.
“I think it’s in a better place than when I came, and so I feel comfortable taking this opportunity to do something different,” Isom said.
Isom, who earned bachelor’s (1994), master’s (2003) and doctoral (2008) degrees from UMSL, will enter into a non-tenure track teaching position with the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
Some have speculated that language in the local control ballot initiative, which will appear on the November ballot, influenced Isom’s decision to leave.
At a March 1 public forum, Isom expressed concern about his ability to hire, fire and discipline employees under the form of police control outlined in the initiative. He stated, “In this ballot initiative, the Civil Service Commission determines that – not the chief, not anyone else.”
But he told The American that the initiative’s impact on his ability to hire, fire and discipline was not his reason for leaving.
“No, my decision is based on my interest in education and also policing,” he said. “My original contract was for five years, and I always had intention of doing four or five years.”
‘Complaint and discipline process’
In the interview, Isom responded to an inquiry about an unannounced negotiation between the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, the police department and the Consortium for Policing Leadership Equity (CPLE), a research consortium at University of California at Los Angeles that promotes police transparency. Isom confirmed that the negotiations began in the spring.
“We were trying to work with the ACLU to provide more information about the inner workings of the complaint and discipline process at the police department and use of force issues,” he said.
At this point, he said, the groups and department are working with the St. Louis Police Officers Association, “trying to tell them what we are thinking about doing.”
“Instead of being adversarial, let’s work together,” he said about the ACLU. “Let’s give them the information they need to evaluate what we are doing. If they have recommendations we’ll make changes and we’ll try to do better, as opposed to fighting them every step of the way.”
Isom said the consortium approached him about a year ago regarding a pilot program, for which the CPLE received federal grant funding. The U.S. Department of Justice wanted to figure out a way to resolve the issues in city police departments without going to court.
“The beauty of this is, you don’t want to give your information directly to the ACLU,” Isom said. “Could you have an inter-mediator who could take the data that’s filtered, analyze it and put out a report?”
The report will not have any officers’ names or identifiers, but will give an independent picture from both sides of the complaint process concerning use of force issues and police misconduct. Then all groups could sit down together and talk about what they agree and disagree with.
Isom said there is not a target time to complete an agreement. If an agreement is not met before he leaves, he said he strongly encourages the next chief to continue with the project.
‘Unique perspective and experience’
UMSL faculty members said Isom appointment will be great for their students.
“Chief Isom brings to our department the unique perspective and experience of a major city police chief and first-hand knowledge of the opportunities and challenges associated with ensuring public safety,” said Finn-Aage Esbensen, chair of the department and the E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professor in Youth Crime and Violence.
Isom has also been selected as one of eight scholars to participate in the 2013 Eisenhower USA Fellows program. He will travel to Germany in the spring for a month-long professional fellowship.
The Board of Police Commissioners held a special board meeting Wednesday morning regarding the process of selecting a new police chief. State law requires that the St. Louis police chief be selected from within the department among the ranks of captain or above. The new police chief will be announced in November.
Isom began his career as a patrol officer with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in 1988 and rose through the ranks while working in practically every unit, including mobile reserve, police academy, internal affairs, advisory and community outreach. He was named chief of the department in 2008.
