ST. LOUIS, MO – September 9, 2026 (STL.News) A St. Louis-based podcast created by current and retired law enforcement officers is giving viewers a chance to hear directly from St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert J. Tracy while offering a different perspective on policing, public safety, and the people behind the badge.
The Brighter Side of Blue, a locally produced law enforcement podcast established in 2023, featured Tracy as part of its growing collection of long-form conversations with police officers, investigators, prosecutors, federal agents, and others with firsthand experience in law enforcement. CLICK to visit The Brighter Side of Blue YouTube channel.
The Tracy program is particularly significant in St. Louis.
When Tracy was selected to lead the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in December 2022, he became the first police chief in the city’s history chosen from outside the department. He assumed the position on Jan. 9, 2023, after a nationwide search that marked a major departure from St. Louis’ longstanding practice of promoting police leadership from within.
For The Brighter Side of Blue, however, the conversation is about more than crime statistics or another official police news conference.
The program’s stated mission is to go beyond traditional headlines and explore the experiences of the people who have spent their careers in law enforcement.
A St. Louis podcast built around law enforcement
The Brighter Side of Blue describes itself as a St. Louis podcast hosted by retired and active police officers and dedicated to sharing cases, personalities, and conversations that have helped shape the city.
The program was founded by law enforcement officers who wanted a place to discuss stories from the profession candidly and at greater length than traditional news coverage usually allows.
Its programming is organized around four themes: remembering sacrifices made by law enforcement officers, humanizing the people behind the badge, recognizing memorable law enforcement leaders and personalities, and preserving stories about crimes, cases, and events that have affected the St. Louis community.
That mission is reflected in the people behind the microphones.
The program identifies its team as retired SLMPD Major Danny Howard, SLMPD Lt. Jim “JJ” Joyner, retired SLMPD Detective Tommy Sawyer, and retired SLMPD Sgt. John Frank, who also serves as producer.
Together, the hosts bring decades of experience inside the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to conversations that frequently move between serious law enforcement subjects, historical cases, personal experiences, and the humor and camaraderie developed during police careers.
The program has grown substantially since its 2023 launch. Apple Podcasts lists The Brighter Side of Blue as a weekly program with more than 180 episodes and describes its coverage as focusing on law enforcement accomplishments and crime stories through interviews with victims, investigators, officers, informants, attorneys, and others directly connected to the subjects being discussed.
The program is available through multiple platforms, including YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and TikTok.
Chief Tracy brings an outsider’s perspective
Tracy is an especially appropriate guest for a program built around the history and culture of St. Louis law enforcement.
Unlike the officers hosting The Brighter Side of Blue, Tracy did not rise through the ranks of SLMPD.
He arrived with more than three decades of law enforcement experience developed elsewhere.
Tracy spent much of his career with the New York Police Department, where he commanded a Firearms Suppression Division and Firearms Investigation Unit and led units involved in violent felony investigations, warrants, and joint operations with federal agencies.
He later served in Chicago as a principal crime control strategist before becoming police chief in Wilmington, Delaware, in 2017. He remained in Wilmington until his selection for the St. Louis position in 2022.
His policing background has included the use of CompStat, intelligence-based policing, firearms investigations, targeted violence-reduction strategies, and Group Violence Intervention.
That experience was one reason St. Louis officials looked outside the department when searching for a successor to former Chief John Hayden.
The city conducted a nationwide search and eventually identified four finalists: Tracy; then-interim St. Louis Police Commissioner Michael Sack; Norfolk, Virginia, Police Chief Larry Boone; and Columbia, South Carolina, Deputy Chief Melron Kelly.
Residents heard from the candidates during a public town hall before the final selection was announced.
Tracy ultimately got the job.
Then-Mayor Tishaura Jones said Tracy brought a data-driven approach to policing and a record of addressing violent crime while building relationships with community and faith leaders.
His status as an outsider consequently became one of the defining characteristics of his appointment.
Bringing the police chief into a different setting
The Brighter Side of Blue announced during its Sept. 1 program that Tracy had recently visited the studio and recorded an interview scheduled for release Sept. 8.
The hosts said the conversation was intentionally different from the chief’s appearances on crime statistics and policing strategies.
That distinction illustrates part of the program’s appeal.
Police chiefs are frequently seen by the public standing behind podiums following homicides, officer-involved shootings, major arrests, or other public safety events. Their appearances are often necessarily formal and limited to information that can be released during an ongoing investigation.
A long-form podcast provides a considerably different environment.
It allows current and former officers to talk with people from the profession without the restrictions of a two-minute television segment or a short news conference.
For residents interested in how police officers think about their profession, the result can provide additional context that conventional crime reporting cannot always offer.
More than one SLMPD conversation
The Tracy interview also fits into a much larger body of work produced by The Brighter Side of Blue.
Recent programs have taken audiences inside specialized areas of law enforcement.
In July, SLMPD SWAT officers Bennie Blackmon and Franklin Derby appeared on the program to discuss their paths to the department’s tactical team, leadership, difficult callouts, and the brotherhood associated with the assignment.
Another program featured retired SLMPD Lt. Col. Ronnie Robinson discussing the St. Louis Gang Unit.
In August, SLMPD Officer Matt Tesreau, a 20-year department veteran assigned to the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, discussed tracking violent fugitives, serving high-risk warrants, and the increasing role technology plays in police investigations.
The program has also moved beyond SLMPD.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Melissa Price-Smith appeared for a discussion about prosecution, leadership, public safety, and cooperation among prosecutors, police, and the community.
Other episodes have explored sex trafficking, federal law enforcement, historic criminal investigations, the Waco siege, and the experiences of officers injured in the line of duty.
That variety makes The Brighter Side of Blue partly a law enforcement program, partly a St. Louis history project and partly an archive of firsthand accounts from people whose experiences might otherwise never be recorded in detail.
Tracy remains at the center of St. Louis policing
The timing of Tracy’s appearance is also significant.
More than three years after becoming St. Louis police chief, Tracy remains responsible for leading the department during another major institutional change: the return of SLMPD to state control.
In December 2025, the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners unanimously approved a three-year employment agreement retaining Tracy through Jan. 1, 2029.
The board said its decision reflected confidence in Tracy’s leadership and the department’s crime-reduction strategies. At the time, SLMPD reported that overall violent crime had fallen 42% and homicides had declined 31%, although crime statistics require context and do not eliminate continuing concerns about violent incidents, staffing, police response, and neighborhood-level public safety.
Tracy’s continued tenure is particularly notable considering how unusual his original appointment was.
He came to St. Louis specifically as an outsider, entering a department with its own traditions, personalities, and institutional history.
The Brighter Side of Blue’s hosts represent much of that institutional history.
That combination makes the conversation unusual: a chief who built his career outside St. Louis sitting down with current and retired members of the department he was eventually selected to lead.
Giving viewers another perspective
The Brighter Side of Blue does not attempt to disguise its perspective.
Its mission openly supports law enforcement, and its programming frequently emphasizes officer sacrifice, service, camaraderie, and the personal side of police work.
Viewers should understand that perspective just as they should understand the perspective and editorial approach of any media program.
At the same time, firsthand conversations can contribute valuable information to the broader public discussion about policing.
St. Louis residents hear extensively about homicides, shootings, robberies, car thefts, police staffing, response times, and the political debate surrounding public safety.
They hear much less about what officers encounter during decades on the street, how investigators approach difficult cases, how specialized police units operate, or what officers experience after traumatic incidents.
The Brighter Side of Blue attempts to fill some of that gap.
Its website describes the program as “independent and community supported,” with its weekly conversations produced from a St. Louis studio. The show also invites community members to suggest guests and stories and offers merchandise and other ways to support the production.
A growing archive of St. Louis police history
The program may ultimately create another value.
Today’s podcast interviews can become tomorrow’s historical record.
St. Louis has a complicated and lengthy history involving crime, policing, civil unrest, organized crime, federal investigations, and changing relationships between police and the communities they serve.
Many of the people who personally experienced important chapters of that history are now retired.
Recording their stories while they can still tell them preserves perspectives that otherwise could disappear.
The Tracy interview adds another chapter.
He is the first outsider selected to lead SLMPD, a chief who arrived after a national search and has remained through the department’s transition back to state oversight.
Whatever history ultimately says about Tracy’s tenure, his appointment marked a significant break with St. Louis police tradition.
And The Brighter Side of Blue gives viewers an opportunity to hear from him in a setting created largely by people who spent their careers inside the department he now leads.
For viewers interested in St. Louis policing, criminal investigations, public safety, or the personalities behind the badge, the Tracy program also introduces a much larger archive.
The Brighter Side of Blue has spent the past three years building that archive one conversation at a time.
Watch and learn more: The Brighter Side of Blue is available through YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and TikTok. Additional information about the hosts, recent episodes, and the program is available through The Brighter Side of Blue official website.
Editor’s note: The Brighter Side of Blue is an independent law enforcement podcast. Statements and opinions expressed by its hosts and guests are their own. STL.News is highlighting the program because of its relevance to St. Louis public safety and its interview with SLMPD Chief Robert Tracy.
