Jeff Roorda said he’s weighing his options after announcing that he no longer is the spokesman and business manager for the St. Louis Police Officers Association, where he had worked for nearly 12 years.
The association is the area’s main police union and represents officers with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, as well as civilian workers and St. Louis County prosecutors.
Roorda, 57, of Arnold announced his departure from the union Sept. 26.
He said he was placed on paid leave by the union on Sept. 14.
“I don’t have any immediate plans,” he said on Sept. 30. “I’m not in a rush to do something I don’t want to do. I’m weighing my options. I’ve talked to a lot of folks, and they’ve asked about what they could do and I’ve told them to keep their ears open for an opportunity for me.”
Roorda said he left the union with six months of paid leave accrued.
“I’ve got time to consider my next move,” he said.
Roorda said at this point, he has no preconceptions about what his next job might be.
“I’ve got a skill set that I think will be fairly highly sought after, and not just police experience,” he said. “I’ve had state government experience and local government experience.”
Before being hired by the police union, Roorda had worked for 13 years as a police officer in Arnold and then was police chief and city administrator in Kimmswick. He also has served four two-year terms in the Missouri House of Representatives and has served on the board of directors of the Antonia Fire Protection and Rock Township Ambulance districts.
In a written statement, Roorda said he is “greatly concerned about what the future holds” for St. Louis police officers.
He also said the union is deeply divided.
In a statement, Jay Schroeder, the union’s president, thanked Roorda for his time and said retired St. Louis detective Joe Steiger would succeed Roorda as business manager. Steiger’s first day was Monday, Oct. 3.
Roorda said his contract was set up to renew automatically in April, but the association’s board decided against renewal at that point to determine what would happen in the August primary election, when Roorda ran against three others for the Republican Party’s nomination for the 22nd District in the state Senate.
Roorda finished second to Mary Elizabeth Coleman in that race. Coleman is running against Democrat Benjamin Hagin in the November general election.
“I don’t think I did too bad, considering I was running against three (current state representatives) and it was my first campaign as a Republican after switching parties,” Roorda said.
He said it wasn’t a surprise that the board didn’t renew his contract after the election.
“Was my departure political? That’s a good way to describe it,” he said. “There’s been a lot of political pressure for me to leave for a while now.”
Former St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson and current Mayor Tishaura O. Jones have called upon the union to fire Roorda, who came into regional and national prominence after the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson.
He wore an “I am Darren Wilson” wristband at a meeting of a proposed civilian oversight board and released “Ferghanistan: The War on Police,” that included sympathetic interviews with Wilson.
“The St. Louis media has painted me as a controversial figure,” Roorda said. “If I’m controversial, it’s because I stood up for police officers. What I said happened in Ferguson was corroborated by the Department of Justice after a yearlong investigation.”
The federal report cleared Wilson of violating Brown’s civil rights and concluded that his use of force was defensible in the shooting.
“I guess standing up for the police made me controversial,” Roorda said.
“As for me, I have no regrets,” Roorda wrote in his statement. “I’m proud that I stood up for cops at a time when a false and divisive narrative threatened the future of the profession and the safety of our region. For that, I offer no apologies.”
Roorda said for the time being, he is happy.
“After representing police officers around the clock for more than a decade, it’s enjoyable being able to spend time with my wife (Nancy) and our three daughters,” he said.
He said he’s not worried about his immediate future. “If nothing else, I am very resilient.”