Chicago Police Department new superintendent search is underway

Chicago Police officers participate in an Honored Star Case ceremony, July 17, 2018.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said as recently as last month, “There’s not a lot of people ... who can be the leader of the second-largest police department in the country. Maybe there’s 10 or less who can actually do the job.”

Now, as the departure of Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson appears imminent, Lightfoot will be tasked with finding a new leader for the department — one that is still grappling with low officer morale, entrenched violence and a series of reforms mandated by a federal consent decree.

Nearly four years ago, an end-run around the Police Board’s nationwide search for a replacement for fired Police Supt. Garry McCarthy allowed then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel to pluck Johnson out of obscurity, even though Johnson didn’t seek the job. Johnson at the time was the department’s chief of patrol.

Emanuel pulled it off by rejecting all three finalists chosen by the Police Board after a first nationwide search and by persuading the City Council to cancel the charade of a second nationwide search required by law.

At the time, the Police Board president was Lori Lightfoot. She was offended the search she and the board had so painstakingly conducted was discarded in favor of the one man Emanuel thought could rebuild public trust and police morale shattered by the police shooting of Laquan McDonald.

McCarthy said he can’t name an insider whom he believes has the leadership skills and “wealth of experience in crisis management” needed to do the job and do it well.

“One of the things about this place that I found inside CPD is that few and far between were there decision-makers,” McCarthy said. “This was New York City in 1990 where the way you advanced was simply through seniority. Don’t let anything happen on your watch. Don’t do anything outside the box.”

But McCarthy acknowledged an outsider would be at a disadvantage because of Chicago’s parochial brand of politics.

“When I first walked through the door, I started getting phone calls from aldermen telling me who they wanted to be their district commanders. And I said, ‘I’m gonna pick the district commanders because I’m accountable for their behavior.’ That’s where it started and that was probably two weeks in,” he said.

“This city is all about politics. ... You don’t get ahead by performing, except the rare exception. You get ahead because you’re hooked up. And that’s got to stop.

“An outsider coming in can put the department in order in short order. But an outsider coming in — and this is speaking from experience — dealing with the politics here is at an enormous disadvantage because you don’t know who’s who and what’s what.”

Some possible contenders for the top cop’s job:

Melissa Staples

A 28-year CPD veteran, Melissa Staples serves as the Chicago Police Department’s chief of detectives. She’s worked in some of the city’s most violent areas and has served in a variety of leadership capacities during her time with the department. The department’s homicide clearance rate could hinder her chances, though it has improved significantly in recent years.

Eugene Williams

Williams was a CPD fixture, serving as a deputy superintendent who oversaw the department’s Bureau of Support Services. Before Emanuel selected Johnson as superintendent, the Lightfoot-led Chicago Police Board recommended Williams as one of three finalists for the job. Before the selection of Johnson, the city’s black aldermen voiced strong support in Williams’ candidacy for the job.

Sean Malinowski

The recently retired chief of detectives of the LAPD now lives in Chicago and works at the University of Chicago Crime Lab, serving as a consultant to the CPD for the last two years. Malinowski was brought to Chicago at the invitation of Johnson to help develop the highly touted Strategic Decision Support Centers, which allow the department to monitor for criminal activity in real-time. Malinowski is a former Fulbright scholar with a doctorate in public administration.

Cedric Alexander

Alexander, the former chief of police in DeKalb County, Georgia, was another of the three finalists Lightfoot recommended to Emanuel during the last superintendent search. He is the former president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives and holds a doctorate in clinical psychology and a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy.

Al Wysinger

Wysinger retired from the CPD shortly after the release of the McDonald shooting video in 2015. At the time, he was the highest-ranking African American person in the department, serving as first deputy superintendent under Garry McCarthy. Like Williams, Wysinger had support from the city’s African American aldermen, some of whom wanted him to get the job after McCarthy’s ouster.

Barbara West

West is the CPD’s chief of organizational development and is responsible for overseeing department hiring and making sure the CPD adheres to the recommendations included in the scathing Justice Department report prompted by the McDonald shooting video. West’s bureau is also tasked with “coordinating and directing Department activities which specifically relate to budget and fiscal control and personnel administration.”

Leo Schmitz

Schmitz was the CPD’s deputy chief of the historically violent Englewood District until 2015, when he left the department to lead the Illinois State Police. Earlier this year, Schmitz was hired as chief of public safety for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

Anne Kirkpatrick

Kirkpatrick was the third finalist for the superintendent job that Lightfoot recommended to Emanuel before Johnson was hired. Formerly the chief of the Spokane Police Department in Washington, Kirkpatrick was eventually hired by the CPD to head the department’s new Bureau of Professional Standards. However, sources said, she quickly butted heads with veteran department leadership and soon left Chicago to lead the Police Department in Oakland, California.

Other candidates

Possible candidates, without ties to Chicago, who McCarthy spoke highly of: Robert Tracy, who served as the CPD’s chief of crime control strategies under McCarthy, chief of police in Wilmington, Delaware; Camden County New Jersey Police Chief J. Scott Thomson; Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams; Cathy Lanier, former chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, senior vice president of security for the NFL; Art Acevedo, chief of the Houston Police Department; and Ed Davis, former commissioner of the Boston Police Department.