ST. LOUIS – New St. Louis Police Chief Robert Tracy has been at the helm of the police department for only a few weeks, but he is keenly aware of the challenges facing the city.
Tracy recently sat down with FOX 2 for a one-on-one interview. He says he’s been analyzing crime data, meeting with members of the community and others within the police department to develop strategies to fight crime.
While it appears to be a monumental task, Tracy is confident he can help make the city safer.
“Crime is high like it is in other cities, and we need to make sure we bring it down,” said Tracy. “How do you start reducing it? You got to have small wins, incremental wins.”
Tracy is determined to fight crime as the city deals with a recent wave of gun violence, robberies and carjackings.
“My first priority is to make sure we’re looking at violent crime,” said Tracy. “We’re looking at overall crime, and the process we put in place to find out how we can reduce them and make sure we don’t have people repeat them.”
In some cases, recent crimes have been committed by young people armed with weapons.
“I know we’re up against some laws where it is not prohibited for juveniles to carry guns in the state of Missouri. That’s something that’s new to me,” said Tracy. “We’ve got to look at intervention. We’ve got to look at rehabilitation, and we’ve got to look at consequence too.”
Tracy says he has met with business leaders, community leaders and residents. In recent weeks, he has also met with St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, who is facing calls to resign and threats of removal from office.
Tracy is not focusing on the controversy surrounding Gardner, but rather the job at hand.
“I came here to be the police chief, to make sure we’re doing our job the best way possible, the most-efficient way possible and making sure we can make this a safer city,” said Tracy. “With that being said, I’m working with anyone that wants to work to make this city safer.
Tracy has a proven track record, of reducing violent crime and overall crime in places like New York, Chicago, and Wilmington, Delaware. He’s confident he can achieve the same kind of success here in St. Louis.
“It’s not going to happen overnight, but I promise you it’s going to be incremental, and we’re going to get where we need to be,” said Tracy.
Tracy notes he is using some of the same plans that were successful in his previous cities, and says he is also building on the platforms already in place within the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to help fight crime.