NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Officials with the City of New Orleans have revealed the names of the six semi-finalists who are in the running for the next NOPD superintendent.
On Wednesday, July 12, the NOPD superintendent applicant pool was narrowed down to six candidates. Interim Chief Michelle Woodfork was identified as one of the candidates that day.
The following Wednesday, city officials identified the following six semi-finalists in the running:
- Jarad L. Phelps, who has been with the Prince William County Police Department since 1996. This department is a suburb near Washington D. C.
- Deshawn T. Beaufort, who has been with the Philadelphia Police Department since 1996. He was named head of the Detectives Bureau just this year.
- David Franklin, who just retired from the Albuquerque Police Department. He worked at the University of Texas at Arlington before that.
- Thedrick Andres Senior, who recently worked with the Henderson Police Department near Las Vegas. He is a Southern University of New Orleans graduate with a Masters Degree in Criminal Justice.
- Anne E. Kirkpatrick, who has more than two decades of command experience and was the first female chief to lead the Oakland Police Department. She is also a political consultant and has worked with the FBI. She has a law degree.
- Interim Chief Michelle M. Woodfork, who has been with the NOPD since 1991.
They said the candidates will participate in a two-day assessment before being narrowed down to three finalists.
“We’ve created an internal as well as an external panel that will participate again with these candidates in [a] two-day assessment,” said Mayor LaToya Cantrell at a press conference.
Also on Wednesday, city officials identified the internal and external panelists who will assess the semi-finalists.
The internal panelists are as follows:
- Gilbert Montaño — Chief Administrative Officer
- Tenisha Stevens — Criminal Justice Commissioner
- John Thomas — NOSHEP Director of Public Safety
- Roman Nelson — Fire Chief
- Clifton Davis — Mayor’s Chief of Staff
- Donesia Turner — City Attorney
- Christina Hamilton — Assistant Chief Administrative Officer for Human Resources
The external panelists were identified as:
- Sunni Lebouef — Former city attorney for Cantrell, who is now an assistant vice president at Ochsner.
- Paul Flower —Woodward Construction President
- Oliver Thomas — New Orleans Councilmember
- Lamar Davis — Louisiana State Police Superintendent
- Pastor Fred Luter — Franklin Avenue Baptist Church President
- James Cook — Sheraton New Orleans General Manager
- Jay Lapeyre — Business leader
- Eric Hessler — Police Association of New Orleans
- Donovan Livaccari — Fraternal Order of Police
- Paul Mitchell — Black Order of Police
- Louis Colin — Local businessman
Finalists will be assessed by the internal and external panels on Thursday and Friday before recommendations are made.
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