Rahm Emanuel’s top cop search: It’s insiders vs. outsiders

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

The salary dispute that doomed Charles Ramsey’s chances of becoming Chicago’s next police superintendent has created a political dilemma for Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel.

The new mayor can either try to bolster police morale by choosing one of three leading insiders: deputy chief of detectives Al Wysinger, chief of patrol Eugene Williams or Assistant Deputy Supt. Debra Kirby.

Or he can go with one of two outsiders under consideration — national drug czar R. Gil Kerlikowske or Newark police chief Garry McCarthy — and disappoint rank-and-file cops who long for one of their own after three long years under career FBI agent Jody Weis.

Emanuel would have had the best of both worlds in Ramsey. He’s the former architect of Chicago’s community-policing program and went on to run police departments in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.

But when Ramsey’s salary demands doomed his candidacy, Emanuel was forced to choose Plan B.

Some sources close to the interviews being conducted by Emanuel and the Chicago Police Board believe the mayor-elect will ultimately choose an insider, with Wysinger having a slight edge.

Wysinger has broad experience and is known for the day in 2007 when he ran down a gunman who shot a woman in a gangway near his grandmother’s 80th birthday party on the West Side.

“He would turn morale around,” said one former top-ranking cop.

Williams, who also has wide experience, is known for his close ties to West Side ministers and his involvement in the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.

“The ministers would have a big voice with Gene in charge,” a source said.

Kirby, an attorney, was Weis’ legal adviser but has less experience than Wysinger or Williams in the department’s various divisions.

Emanuel campaigned on a promise to make the beat cop the “backbone” of the Chicago Police Department with a superintendent who understands and upholds that tenet.

“None of these [inside] guys have been real visible for three years, but it’s not their fault,” one source said, noting Weis was in the limelight.

Other sources said Emanuel’s choice between an insider and an outsider was a toss-up that “could go either way.”

“There are plenty of outside candidates with long experience in other departments. That’s different from bringing somebody in from the FBI,” said a source close to the mayor-elect’s transition team.

“If you put somebody in who’s a long-time beat cop in another department and surround that person with well-qualified insiders, you can make it work. It makes sense so long as they’re creative about crime-fighting strategies and their ability to work with the rank-and-file and the union,” the source said.

But Fraternal Order of Police President Mike Shields said: “It might be a challenge for an outsider coming in who is not familiar with not only our culture but with the players in the department.” The most important thing, he said, is for the new superintendent “to have our backs.”

Emanuel has said he hopes to have his entire team, including a new police superintendent, in place by his May 16 inauguration.

The mayor-elect has said he would look for somebody who has the “trust and confidence” of the rank-and-file who viewed Weis as an outsider who didn’t have their backs. But he has made no firm commitment to choosing an insider to replace Weis, the first outsider in nearly 50 years to serve as Chicago Police superintendent.

Weis resigned March 1 on the final day of his three-year, $310,000-a-year contract and one week after Emanuel reaffirmed his commitment to dump him as superintendent. Weis was replaced on an interim basis by former police Supt. Terry Hillard, a former street cop who was popular with the rank and file.