SEATTLE — Seattle's interim police chief, Carmen Best, is now one of the three finalists for the city's next chief of police.
Best moved into one of the three spots because an earlier selected finalist, former Pittsburgh Police Chief Cameron McClay, formally withdrew from consideration, a spokesperson for Seattle Mayor Durkan's office said Saturday.
Durkan said after McClay's withdrawal, Best was selected as the additional candidate by a team of assessors.
Best will join Eddie Frizell and Ely Reyes as a finalist for the position.
In 26 years with the Seattle Police Department, Carmen Best worked her way up from patrol officer to interim police chief.
Saturday night, Best shared her thoughts on Twitter.
"I am thrilled to be a finalist for the permanent Police Chief job," Best said. "Everyone knows that I love this city and I love the Seattle Police Department."
Read more about Best here.
Durkan said this week, all candidates will do a series of community meetings and interviews with her.
Read a statement from Durkan from the Saturday press release below:
"I met with former Chief McLay, reviewed his competitive exam materials, and have spoken with a number of individuals including the Mayor of Pittsburgh about his work. He understands the complexity of policing and has been a national leader on police reform. In our first conversation in June, he indicated that his strongest passion is in reform. The Seattle Police Department remains under federal court order and is in a critical two year compliance sustainment period. This upcoming week, Federal Judge Robart has called all parties to court for a status report, and I was briefed by the City Attorney and SPD ahead of the conference," said Durkan.
"One of my key priorities as Mayor has been to sustain reforms while continuing to build our nation-leading police department. I have been exploring a range of options to not just sustain reform, but continue to improve the department to meet the needs of our fast growing city. We need additional expertise to help the City in assessing our path forward under the Consent Decree and our work with the DOJ and the Monitoring Team. I talked with Chief McLay this past week and we agreed that assisting on reform efforts was the best way he could help Seattle."
Earlier coverage from the original announcement of finalists:
The city of Seattle announced the three finalists for its next chief of police.
The finalists are Ely Reyes, an assistant chief in Austin Texas; Eddie Frizell, a deputy chief of patrol in Minneapolis; and Cameron McClay, the former Pittsburgh police chief and the only finalist to be a permanent chief of a large city.
The other two semifinalists were Carmen Best, who has served as Seattle's interim police chief since Jan. 1 and an assistant chief in the Los Angeles Police Department.
Best released the following statement late Friday afternoon:
"There is no greater honor than to have served as the Chief of the Seattle Police Department, in a city and department that I love. I want to thank the Mayor for the opportunity and have agreed to her request that I continue as Interim Chief until a new Chief is confirmed. I wish the candidates the best – each of them should know how fortunate they will be to lead officers who have a commitment to public safety and reform. We will continue to work to meet our community's expectations, while leading the way as one of the best departments in the country, with Service, Pride and Dedication.
Thank you."
The mayor's office said Durkan will interview each finalist in the coming weeks. She will then nominate one of them for the position.
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