Michelle Woodfork, Thedrick Andres, Sr., and Anne Kirkpatrick are the last three candidates standing in the race to become the next superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s office formally announced the three finalists Monday night, nearly one week after local media reports, citing sources with knowledge of the superintendent search, stated that Woodfork, Andres, and Kirkpatrick would be the finalists for the job. According to a press release issued by Cantrell’s office, the mayor considered a fourth candidate, David Franklin, to be a finalist. However, the press release said Franklin withdrew his name from consideration
The International Association of Police Chiefs, the organization handling the superintendent search for Mayor Cantrell, provided the results of their semifinalist assessments on Monday. Six candidates took part in that assessment, two of whom later withdrew their candidacies. Of the four remaining candidates, Jarad Phelps, the deputy police chief of the Prince William County Police Department in Virginia, did not make the final cut.
According to a WWL-TV report, Andres appears to be the frontrunner in the race, as he scored the highest on the IACP assessment with a 77 percent score. Kirkpatrick and Woodfork earned identical marks of 70.3 percent. Phelps received a mark of 66.3 percent.
NOLA.com reports that one of the interview panels docked points from Woodfork, who has served as interim superintendent since December 2022, because they felt she lacked adequate experience for the job.
Andres, a former NOPD officer, recently retired as police chief of Henderson, Nevada, after the officers in his department gave him a vote of no confidence. He also shot and killed a man in Texas while off duty. He was cleared of any wrongdoing in that case.
Kirkpatrick was a finalist to become Chicago’s top cop in 2016. She has served as a police chief in several cities, including Spokane, Washington, and Oakland, California. She sued the city of Oakland for wrongful termination in 2020. A jury found in Kirkpatrick’s favor, and she received a $1.5 million payment from city as a result.
The IACP will conduct background checks on each of the finalists. They will then meet with Mayor Cantrell individually for job interviews before Cantrell selects her nominee. The New Orleans City Council, per a recent charter amendment, would then vote to confirm or deny Cantrell’s appointment.
