Finalists for Chicago’s top cop: Read their resumes, essays

The Chicago Police Board on Thursday formally announced three finalists for the post of superintendent of the Chicago Police Department: DeKalb Co., Ga., public safety director Cedric Alexander; former Spokane chief Anne Kirkpatrick; and current CPD deputy chief Eugene Williams.

All three finalists were first reported by the Sun-Times.

The police board has posted the three candidates’ resumes and responses to eight essay questions included in the applications. Mayor Rahm Emanuel must choose a replacement for former Superintendent Garry McCarthy, whom Emanuel fired in December amid outcry over the department’s handling of the Laquan McDonald shooting, from among the three finalists, or ask the Police Board to start the process over.

Mayor Richard M. Daley rejected all the first candidates offered by the Police Board in 2008, when he eventually selected Jodi Weis to lead the department from a second trio of names provided by the Board, President Lori Lightfoot noted.

Lightfoot lauded all three candidates at a special public meeting Thursday at the Harold Washington Library.

“We all recognize Chicago is at a critical juncture in its history and its future will in no small part depend on the ability of next superintendent to lead the department in a new way,” Lightfoot said.

Biographies of CPD Supt. Candidates