St. Louis Top Cop Might Have America's Toughest Job
Last year, the city saw its highest homicide count since 1994, and it is recovering from months of protests after a police officer was acquitted in a fatal shooting.
Updated | Earlier this year, after John Hayden had taken over as the head of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the local paper advised him to “bring a broom.” Which was apt. The new chief inherits a department swept up in scandals over race, brutality and corruption. Meanwhile, the murder rate is frighteningly high. Last year, 205 people were killed, the most in 23 years, and the city is on its way to becoming the murder capital of America for the fourth year in a row.
But Hayden, a well-liked, 30-year veteran of the force—and the department’s fourth black police chief—has a plan to crack down on crime while trying to alleviate racial tensions. Among other things, his plan involves
