Detroit police chief search narrows down to five candidates ahead of interview stage
(CBS DETROIT) - The Detroit Board of Police Commissioners is narrowing it list for the city's top cop.
The commissioners interviewed five candidates Thursday afternoon. Three will be presented to Mayor Mike Duggan for the final decision pending approval by the city council.
Residents might only be familiar with one name on that list: interim police chief Todd Bettison. Only one other candidate is from Michigan, and the remaining three were also candidates for police chief in Austin, Texas, last summer.
Candidates include Bettison, Police Chief Alan Fear from Lamar, Colorado, former Kalamazoo Public Safety Chief Vernon Coakley Jr., Joel Fitzgerald, who has been a longtime police chief in several cities across the U.S., and Joshua Wallace, the commander of Chicago's Criminal Network Group.
"Our criteria is that this person is focused on constitutional policing, that this person is community-oriented, that this person believes in serving and protecting and not just protecting and serving. Someone who believes in mental health first aid. Someone who believes in CIT," said Commissioner Chair Darryl Woods.
Woods explains what it means to him to see only one name from Southeast Michigan following the 2021 DPD search, when all three of the final candidates were from here.
"These are the best of the best out of the batch we received. We received dozens," he said.
The department has faced its fair share of controversy throughout its history, but Woods says he's confident any of these five candidates will continue to improve the department's reputation.
"We will not go back to that era. An era where people who abused their authority, people who have brutalized citizens. We will never go back to that," he said. "I am very, very pleased that when we make this recommendation that the next police chief for the City of Detroit will never ever allow that to happen in this department."
Woods says their recommendations could be sent to the Mayor's office as early as Thursday evening.