The 21-person committee tasked with selecting five candidates for serious consideration for the Columbus police chief position will meet Oct. 12 at 10 a.m. in the Columbus Police Department Command Center.
Chief Operating Officer David Armstrong announced the date during the CPD’s Ward 6 crime-prevention meeting Thursday.
All 21 members on the committee received the resumes of the 25 candidates still being considered for the position, and they will bring in their thoughts and opinions and discuss a unified selection of five. From there, the process is in Mayor Robert Smith and the City Council’s hands.
Armstrong said Smith and the council members will interview a number of the committee’s recommendations, but they have the option to interview more or open up the application process again.
“They may not like the five the committee recommends to them,” Armstrong said. “They can say, ‘We don’t like anybody.’
“It depends on who we recommend.”
Armstrong is hopeful that a selection is made by the end of November or beginning of December with the hope the new person selected begins by the end of 2011. However, Armstrong said there is no exact timeframe for when the position needs to be filled.
The committee meeting will not be open to the public, Armstrong said, but the interviews that follow will be open meetings.
A total of 82 applications were submitted for the position, and the trio of Armstrong, Smith and Human Resources Director Pat Mitchell – all of whom are on the committee – dwindled the number to 25 by eliminating unqualified candidates. The city requires applicants to have at least 10 years of law enforcement experience, including supervisory experience as a division commander, assistant police chief or police chief.
Mitchell previously said six of the 82 applicants are people from within the Columbus Police Department, two others are local and there are zero applicants from the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office.
Joining Mitchell, Smith and Armstrong on the committee are: Vicksburg Police Chief Walter Armstrong; Tupelo Police Chief Tony Carleton; Columbus-Lowndes Development Link Vice President Melissa Cook; pastor Shawn Parker of First Baptist Church; pastor James Boyd of Zion Gate MB Church; pastor Joe Peoples of Stephen Chapel MB Church; Rep. Esther Harrison, D-Columbus, of Ward 1; Bobby Jordan of Ward 2; Irma Dickerson of Ward 4; Sarah Fowler from The Columbus Packet; Ward 1 Councilman Gene Taylor; Ward 3 Councilman Charlie Box; Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem; The Commercial Dispatch Publisher Birney Imes; WCBI Assignments Editor Steve Rogers; retired LCSO investigator from Ward 3 Robert “Uncle Bunky” Williams; Sandra Jackson of Ward 5; and CPI Group President Mark Smith of Ward 6.
Selvain McQueen, former head of the Criminal Investigations Division, has held the role of interim police chief since the City Council fired Joseph St. John from the post in July. McQueen and Assistant Police Chief Joe Johnson did apply for the permanent position.
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