Six of the eight remaining candidates for the open St. Paul police chief position are current members of the Saint Paul Police Department while two others are external candidates.
Members of the Saint Paul Chief of Police Examining Committee met Thursday night to identify the questions each candidate will be asked during their interviews.
"Those eight candidates will be interviewed by the firm that's been assisting the city with the police chief search," said committee co-chair Sasha Cotton. "Based on those eight interviews, the committee will submit five names to Mayor Melvin Carter for him to interview and have his own process to ultimately make a decision."
The city is looking to replace former police chief Todd Axtell who retired in June.
Axtell had been with the department since 1989.
"This has been a very rigorous process," Sasha said. "We've tried to be very diligent and actually took longer than expected because we wanted to be thorough. I think we landed on some candidates that are great choices to move forward."
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Sasha said it was important for the committee to ask questions about each candidates' leadership style, their commitment to engaging with communities, the city's diversity, and their administrative skills.
"We're really thinking about a mix of questions that think about the hard skill set, but also softer skills like people relations, the ability to understand culture and difference and relatability to people. We know that is going to be essential to having a good, high quality chief for St. Paul."
The next St. Paul police chief is expected to be named by the end of October.