ST. LOUIS COUNTY — Two major police unions are calling for a “drastic change†among leadership in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Police Department amid poor morale, low staffing and operational issues.
A pair of letters sent by the unions and obtained by the Post-Dispatch don’t explicitly call for police Chief Kenneth Gregory’s ouster, but they blame him for severe problems in the department.
“The abject failure of leadership at the highest level of this department has robbed us of the luxury of remaining quiet any longer,†the ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Police Association wrote in a letter to union members.
The Ethical Society of Police, an organization that represents Black officers in the city and county and advocates for equity in the departments, agreed.
“It is clear that while the Chief may have good intentions and a genuine care for the officers on a personal level, his inability to effectively adapt to the evolving demands of modern policing has led to significant operational and morale issues,†ESOP wrote in a letter supporting SLCPA.
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Chief Gregory has been with the ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Police Department for more than 40 years and is serving as the first Black chief in the department’s 66-year history. He was appointed interim chief in July 2021 and received a permanent appointment six months later.
Understaffing woes have been more prominent in the city police department, but the county has seen many of the same issues in recent years. The agency employed 956 cops as of Friday — 133 short of its budgeted strength.
ºüÀêÊÓƵ County police Lt. Col. Juan Cox said in November that about 20% of the agency’s officers will be able to retire in the next five years. And Joe Patterson, executive director of SLCPA, wrote in the letter sent Monday to union members that the department loses a net total of about five officers per month.
Sgt. Tracy Panus, spokesperson for the department, said Gregory declined to respond to the criticism, and she noted that the department and the union are in the middle of contract negotiations.
“Ultimately, (we all) just want what’s best for the police officers and for the community that we serve,†Panus said. “That’s really the bottom line. And it’s just everybody has different ways and different ideas of how to go about that.â€
Among the complaints in the SLCPA letter was criticism of Chief Gregory’s “knee-jerk†plan to help the short-staffed north county precinct by bringing officers from the department’s special operations and criminal investigation unit to patrol the area.
The problem, Patterson wrote, is that the plan was developed only a few days before it was slated to go into effect this week, leaving detectives — some of whom have not patrolled or been in a marked police car in a decade — on the street with little notice and no training on how to use body or dash cameras, accident report programs and the dispatch system. The launch date was eventually pushed back a week.
ESOP, in its response Friday, said the SLCPA had the organization’s “full support and concurrence†and added that they were “disheartened†that Chief Gregory has shown a disregard for specific challenges facing minority officers.
It wasn’t the first time ESOP has sharply criticized a police chief. In 2021 the organization took a vote of no confidence in former police Chief Mary Barton over her handling of racist incidents in the agency. Barton, who is white, resigned a few months later capping off a stormy 15 months at the helm.
Gregory took over the department after Barton’s exit.
Patterson, of SLCPA, wrote in his letter that Gregory “is very much set in his ways†and is not adapting to the new policing environment, which “is rapidly evolving at a pace he is unable to keep up with.â€
He argued that Gregory has not focused on the real solutions to understaffing — retention and recruitment. Without a full staff, he said, the department’s employees experience lower job satisfaction, less opportunity for career advancement and not much work-life balance.
“We honestly do not believe he is a bad person in any way, shape, or form,†Patterson wrote. “We do think he cares about each and every one of you on a human level, which is admirable.â€
But, Patterson wrote, “It is time for a drastic change to avoid losing more employees and sinking morale any lower than it already is.â€