Police Board Hires Isom as New Chief
Following the scandal-ridden resignation of Joe Mokwa, the governor-appointed St. Louis Police Board has selected Colonel Daniel Isom as the new police chief.
Here is the official announcement from Police Board President Chris Goodson:
Members of the Department:
Today, Monday, October 6, 2008, the Board of Police Commissioners convened in executive session to further deliberate on the selection of the Metropolitan Police Department’s next Chief of Police. The selection process began on August 6, 2008.
As many of you know, Missouri State Statue allows for any member of the Department who holds the rank of Captain and above to be eligible for the position of Chief of Police. Initially 13 candidates applied for the position and after a series of assessments that pool of candidates was narrowed to eight finalists.
The Board worked with a leadership development organization to ensure that it had complete understanding of each finalist’s likelihood of success as Chief. Each finalist was given four different written assessments to identify leadership potential. The finalists also participated in individual interviews discussing their responsibilities over the years, and any challenges faced throughout his/her career. Each finalist discussed his/her educational background and experiences, management style, judgment, risk-taking abilities and stress management. Each finalist was also asked to candidly discuss anything he/she would’ve done differently. The results of the assessments and interviews were turned over to the Board.
In the final step of the process, each finalist gave a presentation to the Board about his/her accomplishments, vision for the Department, and plans to achieve that vision. Board members asked each finalist a series of questions relating to each of the following areas: professional development, accountability and responsibility in leadership, organizational awareness, decision-making and assertiveness, creativity and innovation in leading change, and technology awareness.
The Board took all of those components of the process into account in selecting the Department’s next Chief of Police. The Board is confident the selected candidate will bring the positive change necessary to take this Department in a new direction with excellent leadership and the highest level of police service that the St. Louis Community has come to expect.
On behalf of the Board, I am pleased to announce Colonel Daniel Isom as the Department’s 33rd Chief of Police. Colonel Isom is a 20-year veteran of the Department and a life-long resident of the City of St. Louis. His years of experience and dedication have prepared him to lead this Department. The Board would also like to extend our sincere thanks to the seven other finalists that participated in the process; Lt. Colonel Reggie Harris, Lt. Colonel Roy Joachimstaler, Lt. Colonel Stephen Pollihan, Major Alfred Akins, Major Antoinette Filla, Major Paul Nocchiero and Major Lawrence O’Toole.
Please join the Board in welcoming and congratulating Colonel Dan Isom as the Chief of Police of this great Department
Colonel Chris Goodson, President
Board of Police Commissioners
For the first time ever, the Police Board is requiring the new chief to sign a contract, which includes annual performance reviews.
Despite the scandal and mismanagement of former police chief Joe Mokwa, which is still being investigated by the FBI, the Board voted to give Mokwa $100,000 in severance pay.
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11 Comments
butterfly
Tuesday, 7th October 2008 at 8:27 AM
I think the contract with performance reviews is a good thing. It documents when things are going well and not so well. It makes it easier to fire a bad a chief and harder to fire a good chief.
The personal relationship between Slay and Mokwa prevented the city from having a better chief.
David J.
Wednesday, 8th October 2008 at 3:06 PM
Well the Police Board missed the mark on this appointment. How did they elect a Major with less than one year in that rank over more qualified and experienced administrators?
I do believe Colonel Isom is a good officer and is definitely well educated, but now is just not his time.
The current rank in file administrators, the four Deputy Chiefs, are they not competent, have enough experience, the education to be promoted to Chief? What do they do now, retire and we lose these experience administrators or do they just keeping coming to work for a paycheck?
With the issues facing this department, the Police Board needed to promote the candidate who had the most experience and total committment to the department and City. You don’t look at on-the-job training when you’re in crisis management.
To add fuel to the fire, the Police Board should have waited until the conclusion of the FBI investigation into the department and the contracted towing company. It is apparent the former Chief of Police knew what was going on with the towing firm and I’m sure he had great assistance within the department. I don’t believe “I was just following orders” works for police officers. They are sworn to uphold the law, period.
As Colonel Isom stated during his appointment speech, he has waited all his life for this opportunity. How many other officers have this same dream? I believe the current process for promoting a Chief is flawed. As it now stands, there really shouldn’t be any rank within the department, only workers and supervisors. Experience is only a small part of the selection criteria based on this pomotion. The Police Board has no confidence in the current senior administration of the department, based on their selection of a officer who at best reached the rank of Captain with presumably, a satisfactory job performance. What is the Police Board telling other officers whose dream it is to become Chief of Police and those officers who have had extensive tenure and success in the department?
Mokwa's Daughter
Wednesday, 8th October 2008 at 6:17 PM
David, most of those rank in file administrators you’re talking about are part of the problem, part of the culture of corruption in the police department. Mokwa and his cronies are criminals and need to go to jail. I hope the Feds will do what the State of Missouri and the City of St. Louis would not. And that’s take out the trash.
notalacyfan
Wednesday, 8th October 2008 at 7:52 PM
The same way people can reward NObama for his bad boy behavior in Chicago by sending him to Washington to continue his bad boy behavior and have the AUDACITY to want to make him POTUS because of nothing more than white guilt and emotional black mail!
Sammy
Wednesday, 8th October 2008 at 11:20 PM
notalacyfan is just bitter because his guy is losing so bad he looks more and more like Bob Dole every day. LOL!
notalacyfan
Thursday, 9th October 2008 at 9:19 AM
Sammy,
That’s right, if it makes you feel good to support a fraud “NObama” then pat yourself on the back with your rubber arm….U go boy!
butterfly
Thursday, 9th October 2008 at 10:46 AM
Bob Dole (and George Costanza) is getting angry!!
notalacyfan
Thursday, 9th October 2008 at 1:34 PM
butterfly,
Shame on you for coming out to vote for the color of a person’s skin not the content of their character! It’s no wonder that the youth of today are dropping out of high school at an alarming rate and killing one another like flies because they’ve learned this behavior from their envirnoment and irresponsible people in their life! Stop acting like a one legged man in a but kicking contest and stand up for DEMOCRACY not personal interests and show our youth how to be responsibile and productive citizens in society by not engaging in HYPOCRISY!
butterfly
Friday, 10th October 2008 at 5:29 PM
I heard that Chief Isom is the brother-in-law of Ron Henderson. Any idea if it is true? I would rather have the best candidate not have such a connection because then you would know that he got there on his merits, not who his brother-in-law is, but you don’t always get what you want.
Turd Ferguson
Friday, 10th October 2008 at 6:34 PM
I’ve heard that too, and I think it’s true. It was on the Shit-Dispatch….
David J.
Friday, 10th October 2008 at 8:00 PM
Hey does anyone know why the Deputy Chiefs page has been pulled from the SLMPD Website? On the day the new chief was announced, it was not accessible. One possible reason….. there’s going to be major changes at the top with a new Police Chief in place.
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