By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — The city of St. Joseph opened its search for a new police chief on Feb 24. Soon, the public will have its chance to meet the top candidates for the job.
Philip Lukens (Alliance police chief), Paul Luster (Kansas City, Mo., Police major) Stephenie Price (deputy police chief at Beauford, S.C.) and Rance Quinn (acting deputy chief at Kansas City, Kan.) are the four finalists. No current employees of the St. Joseph Police Department applied for the position.
The finalists have been selected from a pool of 23 applicants.
St. Joseph City Manager Bryan Carter said the candidates will come to the city on May 10 and 11.
"They'll come to town on the 10th and we'll do a community tour," Carter said on the KFEQ Hotline. "We'll take them around St. Joseph and introduce them to some of the areas in town. They'll have an opportunity, as a group, to meet with police department staff."
During that time, the candidates will have final interviews and have meet-and-greet opportunities for the public.
"We'll have a series of three-panel interviews," Carter said. "We'll have a panel of community members, city leadership staff and police department employees."
There's a community meet-and greet -event set for May 11 from 6:30 to 8:00pm in Spratt Hall, Rooms 214 and 216, on the Missouri Western campus. The public is invited to attend.
The city hired Public Sector Search & Consulting, a firm specializing in national level recruitment for police executives. Carter says the city hopes to have a new police chief announced by the end of May.
"Once we get one of these candidates selected, assuming we select one of these candidates and I anticipate we will, we'll start working with that candidate to negotiate terms of employment and they'll have to go through a police background check."
Carter says the community will have a chance to meet these police chief candidates here soon and see for themselves how much work went into this process.
"This will be the part we all see," he said. "There's been a lot going on behind the scenes to get to this point."
Chris Connally retired as St. Joseph's police chief last September after serving 17 years. Dave Hart has served as interim chief in the meantime.