Jay Schroeder, president of the St. Louis Police Officers Association, was among more than a dozen law enforcement officials who met with President Trump and other White House officials Friday to discuss “high crime” in cities across the nation.
The Republican president met with members of police unions from several major U.S. cities at the White House Friday, including Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Indianapolis, and Houston. Trump spent nearly an hour with the officials, discussing rising crime and issues with prosecutors, Schroeder said.
“The president was really interested in what’s going on in these cities. I mean, the crime is out of control; we’re all having problems with the prosecutors,” Schroeder told The Missouri Times. “He has a vested interest in these communities and wanted to know what he could do to help.”
“The president is 100 percent behind law enforcement, 100 percent invested in these communities where people are getting murdered, and he wants to stop it just like everybody else,” Schroeder continued.
Schroeder commended officials from the Trump administration, including from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, for attending the meeting and conversing with police union officials. He said the administration officials opened “a line of communication that we’ve never really had with a president before” and plan to continue discussions in the future.
“[Trump] is the one actually stepping up in this time of high crime,” he said.
And as police unions have clashed with Kimberly Gardner, the chief prosecutor in St. Louis, Schroeder praised the work federal prosecutors have done nationwide.
Earlier this month, U.S. Attorney General William Barr ignited controversy over comments he made at a Justice Department event honoring law enforcement officials.
“I think today the American people have to focus on something else, which is the sacrifice and the service that is given by our law enforcement officers. And they have to start showing more than they do, the respect and support that law enforcement deserves,” Barr said. “If communities don’t give that support and respect, they might find themselves without the police protection they need.”
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The national Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) organized Friday’s meeting, Schroeder said. The FOP endorsed Trump when he ran for president in 2016.
Friday’s event was Schroeder’s first time at the White House. He was also able to meet with Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, while in Washington, D.C.
Kaitlyn Schallhorn was the editor in chief of The Missouri Times from 2020-2022. She joined the newspaper in early 2019 after working as a reporter for Fox News in New York City.
Throughout her career, Kaitlyn has covered political campaigns across the U.S., including the 2016 presidential election, and humanitarian aid efforts in Africa and the Middle East.
She is a native of Missouri who studied journalism at Winthrop University in South Carolina. She is also an alumna of the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.
Contact Kaitlyn at kaitlyn@themissouritimes.com.
