2 APD chief finalists, should there be more?

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Who will be the next police chief for the Austin Police Department?

The city has narrowed the list down to two final candidates, Lisa Davis who is an Assistant Police Chief with the Cincinnati Police Department, and Chief Jeffrey Norman with the Milwaukee Police Department.

"Public safety is probably the biggest issue in any city," said Austin's NAACP President, Nelson Linder.

Linder has seen a number of APD police chiefs come and go over the years, his top priority is having someone in charge who puts the city first.

"Let's make this city as safe as possible and as fair as possible to everybody, that is the big picture," Linder said.

This latest search went from more than 30 candidates down to two finalists.

"It is not perfect, it is not imperfect," said Linder about the process to find a chief. "I think it is in the middle. I think we got some good candidates, but I think if they (Norman and Davis) are the finalists, then they are the finalists."

Kathy Mitchell, a senior advisor with Equity Action, reviewed the names of those who applied for the chief's opening when the list was released.

"I was very happy that the city released all of the candidates," said Mitchell.

Mitchell has questions and concerns about how we ended up with just two finalists though.

"I think the process has been deeply flawed, but it can be resurrected, it can be fixed," said Mitchell.

She was hoping for four or five candidates to eventually meet the public.

"There should be a larger list of finalists at this point," said Mitchell. "There are individuals with significant police chief experience that did not make it into the finalists list."

"Let's embrace the best person who wins and let's go forward and talk about this system and how to improve it and look forward to the future," said Linder.

Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock tells KXAN he has no concerns with how the process to find the next APD chief played out.

The city tells us they are awaiting feedback from community stakeholders as well as members who attend the community meet and greet on July 23.

KXAN looked back at the process that led to Joseph Chacon's hiring three years ago. 45 people applied, then the list of candidates was narrowed to seven before Chacon was named among three finalists. The city gave the community two days to meet the finalists.