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Mayor-elect Jones to appoint former police chief as new public safety director

Dan Isom most recently served as the executive director of the Regional Justice Information Service, most commonly known as REJIS

ST. LOUIS — Mayor-elect Tishaura Jones announced Thursday she will appoint former St. Louis Police Chief Dan Isom as the city’s new public safety director.

Isom most recently served as the executive director of the Regional Justice Information Service, most commonly known as REJIS. Sources tell 5 On Your Side Isom asked that organization’s board of directors for a leave of absence from that position to serve as the city’s new public safety director.

Mayor Lyda Krewson’s appointee, retired Judge Jimmie Edwards, resigned from the position just weeks ago with his retirement effective March 31. He had been making a salary of about $200,000. It’s unclear whether Isom will make the same salary.

This won’t be Isom’s first foray into a public safety position.

Former Gov. Jay Nixon appointed him as the state’s director of public safety on Sept. 1, 2014 during the height of the protests that erupted out of Ferguson. He spent the bulk of his career with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, joining as a recruit in 1988. Mayor Francis Slay appointed Isom as chief in October 2008 after then-Chief Joe Mokwa resigned following a scandal involving the city’s tow lot.

Isom retired in January 2013 to become the E. Desmond Lee Professor of Policing and the Community for the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

As director of REJIS, he oversaw the St. Louis-based data management company, which serves more than 300 governmental and quasi-governmental agencies throughout Missouri, Kansas and parts of Illinois. The organization integrates data across municipal, state and federal agencies including police, courts, corrections, legal and security firms as well as governmental, higher education and utilities.

Police officers most often rely on data from REJIS to research criminal histories and share information among other jurisdictions.

Jones also announced the person who will take over in the office she will vacate next week: treasurer. Adam Layne, who most recently served as Jones' deputy chief of staff, will take over as treasurer after Jones is sworn in.

Among the newly appointed treasurer’s lengthy list of experiences and formal education, Layne has most recently served as Jones’ deputy chief of staff in the St. Louis Treasurer’s Office. He is also a member of the St. Louis Board of Education, but he will most likely have to resign from that position.

“[Layne’s] passion for public service, and his professional experience in both finance and education — including his time in the treasurer’s office as my deputy chief of staff — gives me the faith that he will be a strong partner to my administration, holding the city’s banking decisions to a standard that prioritized racial equity and transparency,” Jones said. 

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