Six people have been selected as semi-finalists in the search for the city’s next permanent police superintendent, sources familiar with the process told the Tribune Thursday.
Five of the six have direct ties to the Chicago Police Department. The sixth is the chief of police in Madison, Wisc., who was previously an employee of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability has until July 14 to narrow the finalists down to three and submit those names to Mayor Brandon Johnson. Johnson then will either make his selection, pending full City Council approval, or he can order the CCPSA to start the process over again.
The six semi-finalists are:
– Larry Snelling, chief of CPD’s Bureau of Counterterrorism who’s widely considered to the CPD’s top expert on use of force training and constitutional policing. The former commander of the Englewood District on the South Side.
-Migdalia Bulnes, a CPD deputy chief who was recently a finalist to become the next police chief in Evanston.
-Ernest Cato III, the former chief of the Bureau of Counterterrorism. Cato, a longtime CPD supervisor on the West Side, was a finalist for the superintendent job in 2020 and abruptly retired from the department last year.
Afternoon Briefing
Weekdays
Chicago Tribune editors’ top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon.
-Angel Novalez, chief of the CPD’s Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform.
-Donna Rowling, an attorney and commander of the CPD’s Labor Relations Division.
-Shon Barnes, the chief of police in Madison, Wisc., who previously worked for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
The CCPSA hosted seven community forums across the city earlier this year to solicit residents’ feedback on what traits they want in the city’s next police superintendent. Of the several hundred speakers, most agreed that the next leader of the department should have deep ties to the city and police department.
The commission faced criticism last week when 19 aldermen released a letter declaring their “disappointment and dismay” over its decision to eliminate police Chief of Patrol Brian McDermott from consideration. Sources told the Tribune the commission has concerns about how the department has been operating, including 11,000 complaints since the consent decree went into effect and a recent lawsuit by the ACLU alleging the department targets people of color for stops.
The permanent superintendent position was vacated in March when David Brown submitted his resignation just a day after former Mayor Lori Lightfoot failed to qualify for the runoff election.
After Brown returned to his native Texas, Johnson selected Fred Waller — the former CPD chief of patrol who retired in 2020 — to lead the department through the summer on an interim basis.
