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ST. LOUIS — The city’s new top cop says he’s spent his first three months evaluating the department and listening to the community, likening himself to a new football coach with a fresh playbook.

St. Louis police Chief Robert Tracy made the remarks Friday morning at police headquarters during an event to mark his first 100 days on the job. He also expressed confidence in his ability to reduce crime and improve officer morale.

“There are a lot of good things happening internally in this police department,� he said. “What I found out very quickly is that we have very dedicated and professional police officers and leadership.�

Tracy took over Jan. 9 and is the department’s first chief hired from outside the organization. His most recent job was police chief in Wilmington, Delaware.

“We do have our challenges,� Tracy said. “I am not here by accident.�

Tracy said there is a relatively small group of people committing most of the serious crimes in the city, so the department’s resources should focus on those offenders.

“I call them people with a high propensity for violence,� he said. “And those people are both an offender one day and they can be a victim the next day. We have to concentrate on them because you don’t have to arrest everyone to reduce violence.�

Tracy ticked off a list of what he’s accomplished in his first 100 days including staffing changes such as putting majors on duty overnight to monitor and keep him updated on major crime incidents; restructuring the department’s analytics to be more streamlined and efficient for officers on the street; and providing more training opportunities for leadership.

The chief has attended at least 75 community meetings with neighborhood leaders, clergy and residents across the city. He called it a listening tour and said he has taken action based on what he hears.

He also discussed low morale in the department, which he said is nothing new across the country. As a solution, the chief pointed to a recent pay raise to create competitive salaries and a union contract finalized for the first time in three years.

But he did not say much when asked about the crisis at the circuit attorney’s office, noting the issue is being dealt with at the state level. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has sued to remove St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner from office after years of criticism over dysfunction and understaffing in her office.

“My job is to make sure we do everything that we can do right,� he said. “And if there are issues on the policing side, I’ve got to make sure we identify them and bring the best case forward.�

Tracy also pointed to the agreement outlining how to handle juvenile crime suspects signed by his department and the juvenile court after authorities gave contradictory accounts of why proper procedures were not followed after a shooting at City Foundry STL involving teenagers who were released to their parents instead of taken to the family court and evaluated for detention.

“There’s no finger pointing there,� he said. “There were some things we had to look at and improve on.�

Tracy acknowledged this is just the beginning of his tenure and the efforts he’s making to improve crime rates and officer morale will take time. He said it took more than a year to see crime decrease in Delaware, and more than two years for the same to happen in Chicago, where he was a crime control strategist before moving to Delaware.

“I’m in St. Louis for the long run,� he said. “I know we can get this done because I have seen it in other places.�