Who’s Among Top Police Chief Finalists? – Only In Bridgeport®

Sometime this week the names of the three finalists for police chief are expected to be officially announced by the mayor’s office.

Who’s among the top three?

A number of political insiders have mentioned Acting Chief Rebeca Garcia, Captain Lonnie Blackwell and former Acting New Haven Police Chief Renee Dominguez as candidates who performed well in the testing process.

Information flow has been extremely tight to eliminate influence due to the last chief search in 2018 in which former Chief Armando Perez was imprisoned for conspiring to rig the testing process.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) has been retained by the city to supervise the current search soup to nuts. The organization received 27 applications, 19 candidates made the cut for the second phase. The city recently announced the latest oral evaluation phase whittled down to 11 candidates.

A minimum score of 75 percent was required to pass each part of the application process, according to a news release recently issued by the city. Candidates who passed part three will be listed in rank order on the established list.

The City Charter empowers the mayor to appoint a chief among three finalists to a five-year contract approved by the City Council. The mayor can renew the contract for another five years. The chief is termed out at 10 years. Same goes for the fire chief.