ST. LOUIS (KMOX) -  The new Special Agent in Charge for the FBI’s St. Louis field office says it’s clear this city has a big problem.

“You know, when you have a situation like this, a city like St. Louis that is the top of the chain when it comes to violent crime, this is going to affect the tourist trade and the economy in general,” Dean C. Bryant said Wednesday morning as a guest on KMOX’s Total Information AM.

“It doesn’t matter if you live downtown or not, it’s going to affect all of us.”

His assignment to St. Louis from Quantico Virginia is a homecoming of sorts for the Greenville Illinois native.

But as happy as he is to return, he’s also dismayed by the violence that erupts almost nightly on St. Louis streets.

“As a native of this area, I’m extremely disappointed,” Bryant admitted.

Bryant entered on duty as a special agent with the FBI in 1991 and was assigned to the Miami Field Division, where he worked public corruption, violent crimes and fugitive cases, and was also a member of the SWAT team.

After working at several other field offices around the country, Bryant was deployed to the Middle East in Qatar and Iraq in support of the FBI’s mission.

Bryant says while preventing terrorist attacks on U.S. soil is the FBI’s number one priority, with special attention paid to national monuments, he’s not aware of any current plot targeting the Gateway Arch.