St. Louis Lieutenant Colonel Sues City, Claiming He Was Passed Over for Chief Because of Race

A former frontrunner to become St. Louis’s next police chief has sued the city alleging he was passed over for the promotion because he is white.

St. Louis Lt. Col. Michael Sack and former Lt. Col. Lawrence O’Toole were the only remaining finalists for the job after Mayor Tishaura Jones conducted a national search to replace John Hayden in 2021. The four external candidates failed to show up for the written portion of the selection process, leaving the two internal commanders standing.

Jones then announced she was going to conduct a do-over of the national search, stating “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…” according to the lawsuit.

Sack served as Interim Chief of Police several times, KSDK reports.

The city counselor’s office advised the mayor not to reopen the search, according to the lawsuit.

Jones then appointed Chief Rober Tracy to lead the department. Tracy is white.

“(Sack) was not selected for Commissioner/Chief because his selection after the two African American finalists declined it would have shown that he was always qualified to be the city’s next commissioner/chief, but was not selected before the search was reopened because he did not reflect the diversity (race) the mayor stated she wanted for the position,” according to the lawsuit. “His selection also would have highlighted the time and money wasted in reopening the search.”