Chicago's mayor has reportedly nixed the list of candidates for police superintendent provided by panel in favor of a current department official in a move intended to boost officers' moral.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has selected Chief of Patrol Eddie Johnson to be the city's next top cop, despite the Chicago Police Board's recommendations, according to The Chicago Sun-Times.
While the law requires the mayor to pick from finalists given to him, the report states that Emanuel plans to reject the three names the board presented and appoint Johnson first to replace current Interim Superintendent John Escalante. Next, he would ask the Police Board to conduct a second search with Johnson as one of the finalists.
The finalists the Police Board recently gave Emanuel were: Chicago Deputy Police Supt. Eugene Williams; DeKalb County Director of Public Safety Cedric Alexander and former Spokane Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick.
Sources told The Sun-Times that Emanuel ultimately concluded that only an insider could restore the trust of African-Americans as well as rally rank-and-file officers.
The release of a video showing an officer fatally shoot Laquan McDonald has put officers on the defense and has led to a spike in gang violence that has the city on pace to top 600 homicides and 6,000 shootings this year.
