New St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry vows to listen

Axel Henry made phone calls to new police recruits this week and got a reminder of why he loves his new job.

Henry, who was sworn in as St. Paul's police chief Wednesday, was calling applicants for the department's police academy to let them know that they had been accepted. Many cried on receiving the news, he said, but one call stood out.

"One of them was a St. Paul kid who literally said, 'I've been waiting my entire life for this phone call,'" Henry, 54, said. "That inspires me."

Henry will manage hundreds of officers, oversee a potential $130 million budget and help to implement a community-first public safety approach backed by Mayor Melvin Carter and $10 million in federal funds during his six-year term as chief.

In an interview, Henry detailed some of his priorities, including curbing gun violence and building connections with residents, and shared how the city that he credits with raising him, plus a dose of hip-hop, inspires him to lead.

Carter recommended Henry, a 24-year veteran of the department over four other candidates for the job, and he won unanimous approval from the City Council. At Henry's swearing-in ceremony, Carter charged him with keeping the city on the cutting edge of public safety. "In Axel Henry," he said, "we have someone who has been at the forefront for years, keeping St. Paul in the forefront."

Growing up in St. Paul, Henry said, he found comfort listening to such rap emcees as Ice-T, KRS-One and, his favorite, Run-DMC. He estimates at least 60,000 music tracks are in his collection today. And although he is not a big fan of today's artists, he said the core tenets of hip-hop guided him.

"When you start talking about real hip-hop culture, what are we talking about? We're talking about peace, unity, love and having fun," Henry said. "Those are the four food groups that go into hip-hop that I was raised on."

Henry said he intends to make combating gun violence one of his first priorities and noted that the number of homicides in 2021 is double what the average was before the pandemic.

St. Paul needs more officers to tackle gun violence and do more police work in the community, he said, which is why recruitment and retention is another of his priorities. He said the department must spread awareness about what police do in order to correct misinformation.

The community may play a huge role in that by recruiting potential officers and working with police to deter crime.

"The police are the community, the community are the police, and we've got to work together," Henry said, referring to the pitch he made in public meetings when he was vying for the job.

"I meant this when I said it in the forums, 'The next chief is going to have to be as comfortable on a street corner as he is in the council chamber.' You won't hear what's hurting the community unless you're listening to them, and you won't actually understand how the solutions you want to help them with will work for them, or they won't work for them, if you're not listening."

On Thursday, Henry spent time listening to officers as he attended his first roll call as chief.

Some nodded in agreement when he said officers' achievements in St. Paul make them diamonds of the industry. Others asked for support from the administration and for policy changes to help do their jobs.

Henry said everyone must work together to solve problems that face police and the city.

"There isn't a single problem we're going to be able to solve here without everyone throwing their shoulder in there a little bit," Henry said. "If we can do something to do better for you, we want to know about it. Thank you for what you do, really."