The eight semi-finalists in the search for St. Louis’ next police chief are heading to town this week, and the community will get a chance to ask the final six candidates questions at a public forum on Thursday, December 14.
Personnel Director Richard Frank said that no one ‒ not even the mayor ‒ knows the names of the eight semi-finalists. Throughout the search process, the outside search firm has presented the candidates to the mayor and her advisory committee as numbers, not names, along with summaries of the people’s backgrounds.
“I don’t even know who they are off the top of my head,” Frank said.
He is the only one in St. Louis who has the names, but he more often refers to them as numbers, he said.
More than half of the candidates are people of color, he said. Three are from within the police department, and five are coming from Chicago, Dallas, Baltimore, Phoenix and the Nebraska area. One is a woman.
On Wednesday, December 13, the eight semi-finalists will take an online management assessment test, which will make up 35 percent of their score, Frank said. Then on Thursday, those candidates will interview with two panels. The 13- member Citizen Advisory Committee – a search group Mayor Lyda Krewson put together in May at the demand of city residents – will ask them eight questions, and the outside search firm will also interview the candidates. The combination of those two panel interviews will make up 65 percent of their score. The personnel department will also add up to six points to their scores for living and working in the city.
The candidates with the highest six scores will become the finalists and will go before the community at the public forum that night. The forum will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, December 14 at the SLU Law Clinic Courtroom, Room 1208, 100 N. Tucker Blvd.
The community can submit questions at http://bit.ly/CAC_Townhall. Questions will be selected from this pool, so make sure to submit your question online before 12 p.m. on December 14.
Mayor Lyda Krewson and Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards will interview the finalists on Friday, possibly with the Ethical Society of Police and police union, Frank said. Krewson and Edwards will make the final decision before the end of the year.
In total, 42 people applied for the position. The outside search firm narrowed it down to 13 and then conducted telephone interviews with them. They presented 10 candidates to the Citizen Advisory Committee, with names omitted, and the committee asked to interview eight of those 10. On Monday night, the committee went over questions in a closed meeting that they would like to ask the semi-finalists.
However, Frank said that only his staff will know what those questions will be. He also will be pulling from the questions that were previously submitted by the community.
David Dwight, who sits on the mayor’s committee and works for Forward Through Ferguson, said he believes the city needs a police chief who will acknowledge the historical distrust from community.
“We need someone who is really ready for bold leadership who can transform the culture of the police department and bring it to align with the 21st Century Policing actions that the president’s task force set out, also what the Ferguson Commission set out,” Dwight said. “That’s what I’m looking for.”
The public forum will be livestreamed on Mayor Krewson’s Facebook Page for those who are unable to attend or if the room reaches its capacity of 200. You can find the livestream on the mayor’s page here: https://www.facebook.com/lyda.krewson?fref=ts or the Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/514188415620246/
The public will have a chance to ask questions of the six finalists for St. Louis police chief 6-8 p.m. on Thursday, December 14 at the SLU Law Clinic Courtroom, Room 1208, 100 N Tucker Blvd. Submit your question online at http://bit.ly/CAC_Townhall before 12 p.m. on December 14.
