DALLAS — Dallas is moving more quickly to find a new police chief this year than it did in its last search three years ago.
City Manager T.C. Broadnax told members of the Dallas City Council's Public Safety Committee on Monday he will likely announce the hiring of the new chief one week after conducting final interviews with candidates.
Broadnax said those final interviews would take place on Thursday.
"I'll take the weekend to think about it and likely make a decision the following week," Broadnax said told the committee.
Broadnax also said it's possible the list of seven finalists would be reduced later this week after each is interviewed by six stakeholder panels on Tuesday and a live Q&A with the city council on Wednesday.
The finalists include four with strong ties to Dallas police, including current assistant police chief Avery Moore, deputy chief Reuben Ramirez, former deputy chief Albert Martinez and Maj. Malik Aziz.
Aziz was a finalist for the chief of police job in 2017 and is currently a finalist for the same job in Milwaukee.
Three other finalists include Irving Police Chief Jeff Spivey, recently retired San Jose, California police chief Eddie Garcia and RaShall Brackney, the police chief in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Broadnax said his chief of staff Kimberly Bizor Tolbert and Assistant City Manager Jon Fortune would be a part of one-on-one interviews on Thursday.
"If past is prologue, then a hiring decision will be public one week after the final interviews," Broadnax said.
The Public Safety Committee on Monday questioned both Broadax and the search firm responsible for identifying the seven finalists to replace U. Renee Hall as Dallas Police Chief.
This is Hall's final week on the job after starting in September 2017.
Gary Peterson with Public Sector Search and Consulting told committee members the search process to identify finalists for the Dallas chief job took 83 days.
Peterson said the search that produced Hall as a finalist to replace David Brown took an estimated 100-120 days.
Peterson said the quicker timeline is due in part to his reduced need for travel to Dallas because of COVID but also because of increased competition.
"There are anywhere from eight to 11 cities that are also looking to hire police chiefs, so you are competing for the top talent at the same time," Peterson said.
