When it comes to Toledo’s police chief, the job is full of history, and the stakes are high as the city looks for a replacement for the retiring George Kral.
Throughout the Toledo Police Department’s history, the police chief’s position has been filled 40 times, with the leaders’ efforts highlighted in a virtual historic display curated by the museum. Within months, a new name will be added to the display as another chapter in Toledo policing gets started with a search that is getting under way.
“It’s a huge decision, especially for a city the size of Toledo,” said Robert Taylor, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Texas at Dallas, whose specialty is in police administration.
“The right type of chief could move you into the next epoch of policing,” Mr. Taylor added. “There’s a lot going on right now in policing. Maintaining a calm, and still moving ahead with trying to build relationships with the community, is critical. And that all starts out of that chief’s office. It’s a huge, huge position.”
On Oct. 25, Toledo City Council approved up to $50,000 to hire Ralph Andersen & Associates, a national recruiting firm, to help identify, screen, and evaluate potential candidates to lead the 685-member department, including sworn officers, 35 cadets in the police academy, and department staff.
“As we all know, this position is vital to the operation of the city and therefore candidates need to be identified and hired as expeditiously as possible,” Tyrome Alexander, the city’s director of human resources, told council a week earlier.
Mr. Alexander said he anticipated several focus groups throughout the city and including union representatives, along with other people in the administration and in the county, “to assist us in finding the best criteria for us to select the best candidate for our community.”
His comments were in response to Toledo City Councilman Katie Moline, who asked who was being consulted involving the police chief selection process.
“This is so vital,” she said. “Public safety is always a concern, and it’s on the minds of many Toledo citizens, including probably everyone on this council.”
Toledo’s job
Mr. Taylor, who has worked on police chief searches elsewhere across the country, describes the Toledo job as an attractive one.
“There’s not going to be any problem with the number of people applying for that position,” he said.
“Toledo’s not a small city. It’s a good city. It’s got a university there, as well,” he said. “They’ll be a number of people who are highly qualified to apply for that position.”
In the history of Toledo police chiefs, only two are from outside of the Toledo police ranks. Corrin McGrath served from 1974-1978 and Gerald Galvin was chief from 1994-1998 during the early years of Mayor Carty Finkbeiner’s administration.
Mr. Taylor, who has written a leading textbook on police administration, offered insights on the choices of hiring from the outside or within the Toledo police ranks.
“If you have the right candidate inside, it’s fantastic,” he said. “Because if you have the right candidate inside, he or she has already garnered all of the support and strength from the department.
“New people coming in, it takes them six months to a year to get that under their belt, so to speak, where the department will trust them, that they get to know the department, they get to know the community,” Mr. Taylor said. “Whereas if you have someone inside [the department], that might already be there.”
“Now the negative with that is that they have pre-existing relationships,” the professor said, not speaking specifically of Toledo. “They have preconceived notions about the community. Sometimes the community doesn’t really like that because they want fresh ideas and fresh thoughts regarding how to police their city.”
In addition to the community, “the political structure, particularly,” may want fresh ideas from people outside the police department, he said.
An “inside candidate has got to be able to separate him or herself from what’s been going on politically in the department for the past ‘X’ number of years,” Mr. Taylor said.
While it may take a chief from outside the community six months to a year just to get to know the community and the department, and for the department to trust that new person, Mr. Taylor said that an internal candidate “has all the issues of, ‘Hey, you’re not bringing anything fresh and new to the table. You’re basically going to be progenerating the same problems, issues that we’ve had.’”
A good resource may be Chief Kral, who was promoted from deputy chief to the top position in 2014.
“If he’s a good chief, and it sounds like he’s been a great chief, he’ll be able to sit there and talk to the powers of the city and say, “Look, I have a couple candidates inside that could do this job’” Mr. Taylor said. “He will probably have one or two favorite candidates inside the department, and that might be the best of all options.”
Chief Kral has not said anything publicly about this.
“He won’t,” the professor said. “And he shouldn’t. He should keep all that to himself until asked. And that’s going to happen after Andersen gets through doing their thing and coming up with eight or 10 finalists and select down to whatever they’re at.”
“The usual kind of process is they have eight or 10 candidates,” he said. “Those people are then weeded down to three or four, and then those three or four spend a day in the community, and with the police department, talk with people. Then other decisions are made.”
Consultant’s work
Ralph Andersen and Associates has worked on Ohio-based police chief recruitments in Akron, the Columbus suburb of Bexley, Cleveland, and Columbus and performed other high-level Ohio recruitments in Cincinnati, Dublin, Montgomery County, Powell, and Upper Arlington, Mr. Alexander said in his presentation to Toledo council.
“Since 2016 to present, Ralph Andersen and Associates has performed prior chief services in 57 cities throughout the United States,” he said. “Some of those cities included Austin, Texas, Charlotte, Dallas, Fresno, Las Vegas, Kansas City” and more.
Councilman Moline, who eventually voted against the Andersen contract calling it “a complete waste of money,” listed some she described as “vital” to consult.
They include the Toledo Police Patrolman’s Association, the Toledo Police Command Officers’ Association, and Block Watch captains, for example, “to really form a list of criteria of what is important,” she said.
How it works
As Andersen prepares to launch Toledo’s chief search, the firm is winding down a key phase in another medium-sized city, Reno. On April 18, Jason Soto, Reno’s police chief since 2015, announced his retirement by year’s end. The city’s nationwide search opened Sept. 6 with the application period set to close Friday.
The Reno search offers some clues of what’s ahead for Toledo where a job posting and description were not listed as of this week.
“Public input is an integral part of the search process for Reno’s next chief of police,” the city said in an announcement that included information about an online survey available in English and Spanish. “Residents were invited to share their public safety priorities and the qualities they’re looking for in their next chief by attending a community meeting or taking [the] survey.”
In the two weeks before the official launch of the search in which Andersen is leading the recruitment, Reno held five public meetings for the community. The meetings sought to provide input to help guide the selection process for the next leader of the 431-member department. Andersen’s job posting lists a salary range of $208,492 to $260,624 annually with requirements including a bachelor’s degree, 10 years of increasingly responsible law enforcement experience, including five years of management and administrative responsibility.
“Our chief of police has the responsibility to make a difference in a growing, diverse community,” Reno City Manager Doug Thornley said in the national search announcement. “To lead these efforts, we are looking for a chief of police who is a model of policing excellence. Someone who’s forward-thinking, solution-orientated, and most importantly, committed to community policing.”
First elected in 2014, Reno Councilman Naomi Duerr, spoke of how the process is playing out, including use of an outside search firm.
“I think hiring a search firm in this case was an excellent idea so that everyone involved perceives the process as being fair, and unbiased, and not an inside pick,” she said.
Ms. Duerr also spoke of it being “incredibly important” for community involvement in the election of a police chief.
“They [chiefs] not only have to have the support of their staff and team but also the community,” she said. “The community must believe that the police chief is impartial, runs a good ship, a tight ship, and is for all of the people and will seek justice for all the people.”
Walking a‘double line’
In Toledo, the legislation approved by council states that the Andersen contract is for up to one year. With Chief Kral retiring in January, it’s not known whether an interim chief is planned if the job is not filled by then.
A 24-year veteran and age 48 at the time, Chief Kral was promoted from deputy chief to the Toledo department’s top job in January, 2015, by then-Mayor D. Michael Collins.
“I like to think of the police chief’s position and role as really important in not only maintaining order, but trying to control crime and developing a kind of a trust between city government itself and all of its community,” said Mr. Taylor, the police administration expert.
Having the right person is described as vital.
“It’s an interesting position to look at because a police chief walks kind of a double line,” Mr. Taylor said. “He has to be a police administrator inside the police department, but then he also has to have almost political skills to get along with the external community. And sometimes, you get overweighted on one or two of those sides. Trying to find someone with the right balances is really important.”
First Published November 13, 2022, 12:00 p.m.
