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Police chief candidate search getting “nasty.”
By: Tamara Barak Aparton
Examiner Staff Writer
05/13/09 8:48 PM PDT
As rumors swirl that an Arizona police chief is a major contender for San Francisco’s next top cop, the atmosphere surrounding the search has gotten ugly.
Police Commission President Theresa Sparks said Wednesday that she could not reveal whether or not Mesa, Ariz. Police Chief George Gascon was one of the candidates slated for interviews in the next few weeks.
However, Sparks said she was troubled by reports that Police Department personnel who would like to see an SFPD veteran in the position are trying to sabotage the search process.
“There are actually people in the Department doing cold calls on everyone around the country who is thought to be a possible candidate,” she said. The callers hope to leak the names of external candidates to the press in the hopes the candidates will remove themselves from consideration.
“They’re trying to reduce the number of external candidates to make it more likely an internal candidate will be selected,” Sparks said. “It’s gotten that nasty, that quick.”
Police commissioners hope to get the names of up to three final candidates to Mayor Gavin Newsom by June 1.
“There are both internal and external candidates and we’ve publically noticed 12 days for interviews, probably use three of those days,” Sparks said.
While commissioners have guarded the confidentiality of the applicants, Gascon’s name surfaced Wednesday as a possible contender.
Mesa Police Department spokesman Steve Berry said he could not confirm nor deny that Gascon is in the running.
In his three years in Mesa, Gascon has made headlines both for bringing city homicides down and for clashing with the county sheriff over immigration enforcement. Gascon is pro-sanctuary city, and his city of nearly a half-million people just had its first homicide of the year.
Gascon, who is rumored to be a potential candidate for the Oakland police chief job, served in the Los Angeles Police Department for more than 28 years. When he left for Mesa, he was LAPD’s assistant police chief and director over the Office of Operations.
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