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 Eddie Johnson, who currently serves as chief of patrol and did not
apply for the top job, will take charge of the department at least
temporarily, the Chicago Tribune reported, citing four unnamed
sources.
"While each of the finalists had strong qualifications, the mayor
did not feel that any of them were the complete package that Chicago
needs at this time and thus none were offered the position,"
Emanuel's spokeswoman, Kelley Quinn, said in a statement.
The mayor's office had no comment on the choice of Johnson as
interim superintendent.
Emanuel's decision underscores the political sensitivities in naming
a successor to Garry McCarthy, who was ousted as superintendent in
December after days of protests over a white officer's shooting of a
black teenager.
The Chicago Police Department delayed for more than a year the
release of video footage that led to first-degree murder charges
against the officer, touching off outrage and calls for Emanuel's
resignation. The Democratic mayor, who was re-elected last year, has
vowed to complete his second four-year term.
 "While each of the finalists had strong qualifications, the mayor
did not feel that any of them were the complete package that Chicago
needs at this time and thus none were offered the position,"
spokeswoman Kelley Quinn said in an email.
Johnson would replace the current interim superintendent, John
Escalante, a Latino veteran of the department who applied for the
job but was not among the finalists selected by the Chicago Police
Board.
Neither a representative of the police board nor Johnson could be
reached for comment.
The law requires Emanuel to pick a candidate recommended by the
board, which winnowed down the list from a field of more than three
dozen. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Emanuel would ask the
board to conduct a second search after rejecting its first slate of
finalists, and presumably Johnson would apply.
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Sources told that paper that the mayor was convinced that only a
non-polarizing insider such as Johnson could succeed in restoring
public trust in the department.
Emanuel's plan drew a rebuke from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil
rights leader, who has been a critic of the mayor's handling of the
crisis triggered by the video of the shooting of 17-year-old Laquan
McDonald.
"By circumventing the long established procedure for picking the
city's top cop, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has loaded Chief Johnson down
with baggage that reeks of backroom deals," Jackson said in a
statement.
The police board held public hearings on a new superintendent at
which many Chicagoans said they wanted an African-American as the
new superintendent. At the packed meetings, many expressed concerns
about racism on the force and slow and ineffective discipline after
police misconduct.
Of 405 people shot by Chicago police over the past eight years, 74
percent were black. The city's population is roughly one-third
black.
The three finalists recommended by the board included two
African-Americans: Cedric Alexander, public safety director of
DeKalb County, Georgia, and Eugene Williams, Chicago's police deputy
superintendent. Anne Kirkpatrick, retired police chief of Spokane,
Washington, is white.
(Writing by Frank McGurty; Editing by Mary Milliken and Peter
Cooney)
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reserved.]
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