Last week, St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch announced that he would resign in February.
The announcement came after months of controversy and political battles surrounding county government and its police board. Fitch has insisted that the decision to retire was his own, though.
“Let me put it this way," Fitch told the Post-Dispatch, "I’m not going to miss the circus, but I will miss the clowns."
He plans to create a public-safety consulting firm, saying he has at least one client who made a generous offer.
Fitch must have kept the decision close to the vest before making the announcement last Friday morning. Days earlier, on Tuesday, county executive Charlie Dooley fumed in disgust when Republican council member Greg Quinn rejected Robert Baer as a candidate for an empty seat on the police board, speculating that John Temporiti, Baer's friend and Dooley’s campaign manager, may influence Baer's decisions and could eventually oust Fitch. (Temporiti denied the allegations, the Post-Dispatch noted.) Council members Colleen Wasinger, Pat Dolan, Mike O’Mara, and Steve Stenger—who is running against Dooley for the Democratic nomination—all abstained, while Kathleen Kelly Burkett and Hazel Erby voted for Baer. With all of the abstentations, though, Quinn’s vote was enough to doom Baer’s candidacy. Dooley's other police-board candidate, T.R. Carr, was approved.
Now, a police board that narrowly has a quorum and is missing two members will have the task of hiring a police chief.
As for Fitch, I doubt he is finished with service to St. Louis County. I wrote here in August that he sounded like a man who might seek the office of county executive, and I have not changed my mind. If he chooses to run for a county council seat in two years, Fitch would be a factor. And if Dooley wins re-election, I predict Fitch will run for county executive in 2018.
This might seem like a bold prediction, but it is not unprecedented. After Clarence Harmon stepped down as St. Louis police chief in 1995 and briefly worked in the private sector, he challenged Freeman Bosley for the Democratic nomination in 1997. The New York Times wrote about the political battle, noting the St. Louis Americanheadline that I wrote at the time, “South Rises Again for Harmon." Four years later, Francis Slay crushed Harmon in the Democratic primary, with Bosley—who ran as a third candidate—also receiving more votes than Harmon.
Fitch likely would not face the same fate. He’s well-respected for his tenure as police chief, notably his challenges to Dooley, traffic cameras, and small-town cop departments.
I think he’ll be back in an elected county government office again in short order—and he could be around for a long time.
Commentary by Alvin Reid
