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The nine-member
panel made up of Chicago residents is scheduled to vote on three
finalists to recommend to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago Police
Board said in a statement.
The names of the finalists and information about them will be
made public at the meeting, which is scheduled for 10 a.m. local
time, the board said.
The mayor must choose a new chief from the three, or explain to
the board why he is not satisfied with any of the candidates,
and ask the board to reopen the application and screening
process.
Former Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy was fired in
December after the city released a video of a white officer
killing a black teenager, sparking protests. The officer now
faces trial for murder.
Chicago is one of many U.S. cities that has been roiled by
protests in the past two years over police killings of
minorities, a number of them caught on video.
An average of 50 people a year, 74 percent of them black, have
been shot - including fatal and non-fatal shootings - by Chicago
police over the past eight years.
The Justice Department announced it would investigate the
department's use of lethal force following the outrage over the
death of Laquan McDonald, the 17-year-old whose shooting death
was shown in the videos. McDonald was walking away from police
holding a small knife when he was shot 16 times, but police
initially said he had lunged at them.
The police board held a series of packed meetings to receive
public feedback over the search for a new police chief.
Chicago residents at the forums expressed concern about racism
on the force, the high level of police killings and slow and
ineffective discipline of police misconduct.
(Reporting by Fiona Ortiz and Brendan O'Brien; Editing by Nick
Macfie)
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