Asked today what she might seek in a new police chief, Lightfoot said, “First of all, we only have one superintendent and he’s still here.”

Johnson brought up retirement amid his department’s budget hearings with aldermen last week. Today, the mayor said, “We’re not there yet. As soon as we make an announcement, we’ll look at it.”

Johnson called for an internal investigation into himself after officers discovered him asleep in his car on a late October night. He blamed the incident on a change in medication, but told the mayor he’d had a couple drinks with dinner. Inspector General Joseph Ferguson is investigating.

To select a permanent replacement the Chicago Police Board, which Lightfoot used to lead, must launch a nationwide search. The panel submits three choices to the mayor, who would make her pick and submit that candidate for nomination to the City Council.



Mayor Rahm Emanuel spurned the board’s picks under Lightfoot in 2016, when he was searching for a replacement for Superintendent Garry McCarthy. Instead of choosing one of the board's candidates, Emanuel plucked Johnson from the ranks.

“The Police Board process is mandated by law. I’m not going to violate the law,” Lightfoot said today. “We’ll follow the Police Board process.”

According to City Hall sources and reports from ABC7 Chicago and the Chicago Tribune, here are some of the names Lightfoot's team is considering to take over the department. None immediately returned a request for comment.

• Charlie Beck: A former Los Angeles Police Department captain who helped reform that agency while it was under a federal consent decree, Beck retired as chief of the LAPD in 2018, at age 65, after leading the department for close to a decade. According to the L.A. Times, Beck “equipped his 10,000 officers with body cameras and instituted training focused on defusing volatile encounters. He was the architect of a community policing program that places officers as problem solvers and allies in the city’s most violent neighborhoods.” Asked today whether she and Beck were meeting this week, Lightfoot said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” and described some of the floated names as “wildly off base.”

• Leo Schmitz: Director of the Illinois State Police under former Gov. Bruce Rauner, Schmitz is currently chief of public safety for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. He began his career with the Chicago Police Department in 1986. He was selected to lead CPD's Gang Enforcement Unit in 2009, Chicago's Englewood District in 2012 and was promoted the same year to deputy chief. He retired from CPD in 2015. The Sun-Times reported Schmitz’ rumored consideration in September.

• Eugene Williams: A favorite of black aldermen when Mayor Rahm Emanuel was considering replacements for ousted Superintendent Garry McCarthy in 2016, Williams at the time was the longest continuously serving member of CPD’s command staff, with patrol and community policing experience. Williams is no longer with the department.

• Hiram Grau: A retired 27-year veteran of CPD who served as deputy superintendent and on the Police Accountability Task Force with Lightfoot, Grau has already been twice shortlisted to serve as superintendent: in 2003 to replace Terry Hillard, and in 2007 to replace Phil Cline. He also worked in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office under Anita Alvarez and as the first Latino Director of the Illinois State Police during former Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration.

• Barbara West: She is the chief of CPD’s Bureau of Organizational Development, the office “responsible for implementing recommendations” from the Police Accountability Task Force and the consent decree, according to the department. The bureau also handles budget and personnel. West has been with CPD for roughly 25 years, working in “internal affairs, community policing and human resources,” then in the 15th District on the city’s West Side, according to Austin Weekly.

• Melissa Staples: The current chief of the Bureau of Detectives, Staples is a former Near West Side police commander who has worked in the Patrol Division, Organized Crime Division and the Detective Bureau. She has worked on the city’s Northwest Side, West Side and Pilsen. She has close to 30 years experience at CPD.

• Al Wysinger: He was moved up from deputy chief of detectives to first deputy superintendent in 2011, and was considered for the superintendent spot in 2011. He retired in 2015 after close to 30 years at CPD. McCarthy credited Wysinger with helping “shape the strategic direction that drove down overall crime in Chicago to levels not seen since the 1970s.”

Crain's reporter Sarah Zimmerman contributed.