Rahm Emanuel Picks His Own Chief, Rejects 3 Chicago Police Superintendent Finalists

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has rejected the three finalists for police superintendent, vetted by the Chicago Police Board, and made his own selection, NBC 5 Chicago's Mary Ann Ahern has learned.

The three finalists were:

• Dr. Cedric Alexander, Director of Public Safety in Dekalb County, Georgia
• Anne Kirkpatrick, former Chief of Police in Spokane, Washington
• Eugene Williams, Chief of Support Services in Chicago

On Thursday, the City Council's Black Caucus threatened to withhold the votes needed to approve the mayor's selection unless they have a chance to question the candidates. The aldermen also want Chicago’s next police superintendent to be local and African American.

The mayor's choice? According to Fran Spielman and Frank Main, reporting for the Chicago Sun-Times: Eddie Johnson, the department's chief of patrol.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has asked Eddie Johnson, the Chicago Police Department’s African-American chief of patrol, to become the city’s next top cop in an unprecedented end-run around the Chicago Police Board aimed at boosting cops’ morale and restoring the community’s trust.

Sources told the Chicago Sun-Times that Emanuel offered the $260,044-a-year post to Johnson before rejecting the Police Board’s three recommended finalists to replace Supt. Garry McCarthy, dumped by Emanuel amid public outrage over the video released in November showing a white cop shooting and killing black teenager Laquan McDonald.

Interim Superintendent John Escalante, who took over after the mayor fired Garry McCarthy amid the Laquan McDonald/Jason Van Dyke fallout, was not under consideration for the job of top cop, though he applied. In December, Escalante reorganized the ranks of top leadership in the police department.

Emanuel will reportedly replace Escalante as interim superintendent with Johnson, sources told the Sun-Times, and the mayor will ask for another round of applicants, at which time Johnson would apply.