St. Louis, MO (KTRS)  St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden denies any involvement in the so-called exclusion list of 28 police officers issued by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner.

This is in response to a statement released by Gardner’s office on Friday, indicating that the list was created at the request of of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. On Saturday, Hayden released the following statement:

“No leaders from our Department asked the Circuit Attorney’s Office to compile an Exclusion list, nor do we have any need for such a list. I was quite surprised to have received it. There is no indication that the list was properly vetted. We determined that six of the officers on the list no longer work for the Department. Several of the officers were involved in past investigations but have been cleared with no sustained charges.

Whenever we are concerned about an officer’s credibility, or utility with respect to protecting our citizens, that officer can be placed on administrative duty pending a determination about his or her future with the agency. This list is an unnecessary overreach which would be better handled on a case-by-case basis.
As we are currently 145 officers down, we do not have the luxury of arbitrarily placing officers on a list which hinders their ability to fully do their job.”