What are officials looking for in a new West Palm Beach police chief?

A nationwide search is currently underway to succeed former West Palm Beach Police Chief Frank Adderley.

Adderley was fired on Tuesday morning, with Mayor Keith James citing financial irregularities among other reasons for his dismissal.

In this address to the media, James said, led by Adderley: standards were not met. In the meantime, Col. Tony Araujo is the interim chief of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, but he will not be considered for a permanent position. So this begs the question, what are officials looking for in West Palm Beach’s new chief police officer?

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To get to the bottom of this, WPTV’s Michael Hoffman spoke with Andrew Scott, former Boca Raton Police Chief.

He told Hoffman that many factors go into the selection process. He said whether the department hires an outside headhunter or conducts the search itself, it will consider a number of factors, from law enforcement education, previous experience and training, to reputation with previous similarly sized agencies.

“They’re going to want to narrow down the list of candidates because considering it’s West Palm Beach, I’m sure they’re going to have a lot of people wanting to apply,” Scott said.

Scott said the fact that this is a national search reinforces his belief that the mayor’s office is looking for a major culture change in the department, which will undoubtedly be memorable for any candidate.

“You have to deal with organizational culture issues and you have to deal with public sentiment,” Scott said. “If there is distrust or distrust, you really have to make an effort to destroy that distrust.”

However, Scott said one of the most important aspects of the position is the new candidate’s ability to build trust with the community.

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“First and foremost, what (West Palm Beach residents) should be demanding is transparency from the chief,” Scott said. “They will want to touch, see and feel the leader. And the boss must be available. Accessibility means that the community will believe that the person means what he says, will do what he says, and will listen.”

Hoffman has reached out to the mayor’s office regarding the requirements and timeline for the hiring process, but has not yet received a response.

WPTV will update you when we learn more.

More WPTV coverage on the firing of West Palm Beach’s police chief: :

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