St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden has postponed his retirement. (Photo: St. Louis Metropolitan PD)
John Hayden will remain St. Louis’ Chief of Police until further notice as the search for his replacement continues, KSDK reports.
Sources familiar with the negotiations told the KSDK that Hayden formally agreed this week to continue serving as chief beyond his Feb. 23 retirement date he announced in September. He has been at the helm for four years.
The move follows remarks Mayor Tishaura Jones made in recent weeks about the finalists for the job.
Jones told the St. Louis American: “I only had two white male candidates to choose from and St. Louis is more diverse than white males, our police department is more diverse—there were a lot of diverse candidates within the police department who were kicked out of the first round so I want to start over to find the right candidate.”
The Personnel Division required applicants to have a bachelor’s degree as well as at least 10 years of experience at the rank of captain or above – which reduced the pool of eligible internal candidates to only four.
External candidates were also invited to apply, but did not show up to take the management test.
