St. Paul committee prepares to interview candidates for police chief

The committee in charge of helping to find St. Paul's next police chief could begin conducting interviews as soon as next month.

Members of the St. Paul Chief of Police Examining Committee said that 40 people have applied so far, with 18 meeting the minimum qualifications for the job. Committee members plan to start interviewing candidates on Sept. 14.

Those interviews might be open to the public, but city officials say they are weighing their options.

"We are finalizing that with our City Attorney's Office," Said St. Paul Human Resources Director Toni Newborn. "Right now we're in the thicket of the selection process and just want to make sure that it's fair, it's equitable and transparent."

The committee hopes to end interviews by Sept. 16. Until then, the 39-member search committee will review applicants' information to begin winnowing down the pool of candidates. They will present five finalists' names to Mayor Melvin Carter, who hopes to pick a new chief of police by late fall.

Examining Committee Co-Chair Sasha Cotton said the interview timeline may not be feasible for everyone on the committee, but they want to inclusive to all members.

"I think St. Paul is in a unique situation. This is the first time that we've had such a large committee with this rate of diversity," said Cotton, who serves as deputy director for the National Network for Safe Communities at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "Diversity and inclusion of perspectives, of residents, of folks in business, people who have been in law enforcement, people who work in all kinds of different sectors and have different perspectives, is so important."

The job's application deadline was originally July 22, but city officials extended that to Aug. 5 to broaden the pool of candidates. At Thursday's meeting, Newborn said that six people applying for the job now work at the St. Paul Police Department. According to Ed Steenberg, president of the St. Paul Police Historical Society, only two candidates from outside the department have been hired as its chief in the past century.

The decision could play a huge factor in Carter's public safety plan, which emphasizes preventing violence through community-driven work. Carter spoke of the plan during this year's National Night Out event.

"Those of us who demand new and improved outcomes on public safety — they may not be accessible through just limiting ourselves to the same old approaches," Carter said at the time.