This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 16, 2012 - Big changes are in store for the St. Louis Police Department. It's getting a new chief and, if a statewide vote goes as expected next month, it will change from a state-controlled agency to one controlled by the mayor.
But for now, the Board of Police Commissioners, in perhaps its final major decision before becoming extinct, will select a successor to Chief Dan Isom. Isom recently announced he is leaving the department at the end of the year to join the faculty of the criminology department at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Isom has a bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. degrees from UMSL.
The police board, comprised of Mayor Francis Slay and four governor-appointed commissioners, has not yet announced a process for selecting the department's 34th chief. But on Wednesday it will listen to a proposal recommended by UMSL criminologists.
Whatever process the board comes up with, it would have the final say in naming the new chief.
Selection processes for chief candidates have varied widely over the years, with the board always promising fairness amid rumors swirling about powerful outsiders, or "Aces," having influence on the board's selection.
Four years ago, Isom was a major and one of eight finalist candidates. No captains were among the finalists.
An outside consulting firm had the candidates perform some written assessments, and the board interviewed the candidates individually on such topics as leadership, decision-making, management style, accountability, vision for the future and plans to achieve that vision.
By law, the board must choose from among the department's highest ranking officers -- five lieutenant colonels and 17 captains. No outsiders are allowed to apply.
The lieutenant colonels -- Al Adkins, Reggie Harris, Lawrence O'Toole, Paul Nocchiero and Tim Reagan -- would seem to be the logical top contenders because of rank and experience, but a straw poll by the Beacon of police department insiders indicates that a captain, Sam Dotson, is the probable front runner.
The reason, they say, is his closeness to Slay.
If selected, Dotson, 43, would be one of the youngest chiefs in department history.
His career has been golden so far. The ever-smiling Dotson was an aide and protege of former Chief Joe Mokwa. One of Dotson's accomplishments was his crafting of the police detail for the St. Louis visit by Pope John Paul II in 1999.
Dotson, who joined the department in 1995, resigned in 2003 to take a job at Anheuser-Busch, but the job didn't work out and Mokwa welcomed him back with open arms a year later and Dotson got to retain his sergeant's rank. Such a re-hire is a rare occurrence in the police department.
In 2008, the police board forced Mokwa to retire when a St. Louis Post-Dispatch investigation uncovered shady dealings between Mokwa and an auto towing company.
But none of Mokwa's troubles rubbed off on his trusted aide. Slay eventually became so impressed by Dotson that he plucked him from the department to become the city's Director of Operations. Dotson got a $32,000 raise on top of his $78,000 police salary and was able to keep his police commission and captain's rank.
Dotson declined to comment for this story.
All of the lieutenant colonels have much more experience than Dotson's 16 years.
Reagan, 56, is the senior officer in the department with 35 years of service, much of it in administrative duties. Reagan, who did not run for chief four years ago, has been Isom's chief of staff since then.
Before becoming Isom's right hand man, Reagan was chief of detectives.
Adkins, 53, and Harris, 55, have a wide range of experience and are the highest-ranking African-Americans in a department in which three of the four past chiefs have been African-American.
Adkins, the chief of detectives, has 32 years on the department. His father, Al Adkins, was a well-respected officer on the St. Louis Police Department who reached the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Adkins, the lone lieutenant colonel who lives in St. Louis County, would have to move into the city if he were to become chief.
Harris, with 33 years of experience, has a background that includes inspector of police, in which he was in charge of investigating police misconduct.
O'Toole, 54, is in charge of the department's community policing and is widely regarded as a favored candidate of the rank and file officers on the street. He has 28 years on the department.
Nocchiero, 59, the inspector of police, has been on the force for 34 years, much of it in various management and administrative capacities.
If the statewide vote eliminating state control of the police department is approved next month, the "new" department would not technically go into effect until July, at the earliest.
At that time, the police chief would answer to the city's public safety director, a mayoral appointee who now oversees the Fire Department and city lockup facilities.
The current director of public safety is Eddie Roth. He was on the police board from 1998-2002, serving as president for a time, and is best remembered for trying to promote a captain to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
The majors who were bypassed in the move took legal action to stop the promotion and won. (There are no longer any officers holding the rank of major in the department.)
Bill Bryan covered the St. Louis Police Department as a reporter for more than 30 years -- 22 of them for St. Louis Post-Dispatch -- before retiring in 2007.