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On Tuesday, Kenneth Gregory, 70, became the first Black chief in the St. Louis County Police Department’s 66-year history. The appointment came nearly six months after former Chief Mary Barton resigned on Aug. 6, The St. Louis Dispatch reported
.Gregory is the first Black person to be selected in the leadership role and the department’s 10th police chief in the second-largest police agency in St. Louis.
During a board meeting with the St. Louis County Board of Police Commissioners, a panel of appointees who nominated Gregory for the position, the 70-year-old reflected on his 42-year career in law enforcement.
“I never would have thought that I’d be standing here as the chief of this department 42 years ago,” Gregory said. “Forty-two years ago, no one would have given this department a look to see that a man that looks like me would be the chief of the St. Louis County Police Department.”
Police board chair Brian Ashworth’s decision to nominate Gregory as the law enforcement agency’s newest chief resulted from “extensive discussions” with commissioners.
Gregory served over four decades in almost every police department in St. Louis, including his term as director of the St. Louis County and Municipal Police Academy and commander of the criminal investigations, special operations, and patrol divisions.
Recently, Gregory faced a discrimination lawsuit against Barton after she suddenly resigned from her position with the unit. While serving as her deputy chief, Barton agreed to drop the complaint against the county with a $290,000 settlement, The Dispatch reported.
Before choosing law enforcement as his career, Gregory was a sixth-grade teacher at the Jennings School District for five years. However, when the qualifications became more difficult for educators in the state, he switched career paths and became a police officer for the St. Louis County Police Department in December 1979.
“I had never thought in my life that I would be a policeman, but I got on the department, and the profession has just grown on me,” he said
.The Ethical Society of Police, an organization, comprised of minority police officers that advocate for racial equity in the department, said Gregory “brings an abundance of institutional knowledge to the position.”
“We look forward to working collaboratively with him to dismantle many of the practices and policies that have created barriers to employment for minorities as well as damaged relationships within marginalized communities,” the statement read.