ST. LOUIS — Discrimination is wrong, no matter who does it, and that’s why attorney Lynette Petruska says Mayor Tishaura Jones and her administration need to be held accountable for passing over her client, a white man, for police chief in 2021.
Petruska is representing St. Louis Lt. Col. Michael Sack, who was a front-runner to become St. Louis’ next police chief. He’s now filed a lawsuit alleging he was discriminated against during the first national search process, which left him and another white man, Lawrence O’Toole, as finalists in late 2021.
Jones announced she was going start a new search in January 2022, telling 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.”
At the end of that process, two Black men and two white men including Sack and Robert Tracy remained.
Jones’ administration then appointed Tracy to the position.
“Boy, that would have been a real embarrassment for the city to go through the process again and still say, ‘Oh, we don't have anybody,’” Petruska said. “I think it would have made it very clear that she was looking for a Black candidate.”
A spokesman for the mayor’s office said the city does not comment on pending litigation.
“Colonel Sack isn't saying he was discriminated against when Robert Tracy was made chief, he's saying that he was discriminated against when the process was reopened to find the chief when he was qualified and the only reason he didn't get the job then was because he's white,” Petruska said.
Sack scored a 100% on the second promotional test and ranked number one on the eligibility list for the position, but then Public Safety Director Dan Isom did not schedule an interview with Sack for the job, according to the lawsuit.
Petruska said her client was also willing to accept the chief’s job for the salary the city was willing to pay.
Tracy is being paid that among along with an additional $100,000 from the St. Louis Police Foundation – a nonprofit funded by donations mostly from the business community.
“Sack was willing to serve the City of St Louis for $175,000 a year with total loyalty to the city,” she said. “The entire city, Black, white, purple, north, south, central corridor. We now have a chief that's beholden to the police foundation because they're giving him an extra $100,000 a year.”
Police Foundation Chairman Doug Albrecht issued a statement to 5 On Your Side when Tracy was first appointed in late 2022.
It read: "As an organization committed to providing monetary support, services and goods to the St. Metropolitan and St. Louis County Police Departments, the St. Louis Police Foundation did not want compensation to be a barrier in attracting the best qualified candidates for city police chief. We contributed to the compensation package but did not have any role in the recruitment process nor in deciding the next chief. Our goal was simply to help the city find a police chief who will effectively serve and protect residents, while providing strong leadership for the department. As for the community engagement work, we would like chief Tracy to perform at a minimum:
• At least one annual meeting with each of the city’s 14 wards
• Quarterly town hall meetings with SLMPD officers to share the state of the police department.
Multiple officers have sued the department and alleged their race was the reason they were passed over for promotions in the past.
Petruska has represented many of them -- including Black officers.
She estimates the city has paid out about $3 million in settlements for discrimination lawsuits involving police officers in the past decade.
"[Dr.] Martin Luther King said we need to stop judging people by the color of their skin," Petruska said. "Well, as long as elected officials are going to still do that, we're never going to get to the qualifications or the content of the character or the best person for the job."