Search continues for next Chicago Police Ssuperintendent

CHICAGO (WLS) -- We're learning more about some of the candidates under consideration for Chicago police superintendent.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel will eventually choose from three finalists for the job.

The next police superintendent in Chicago will inherit a department under fire, facing public protests and political backlash in the wake of the police shooting of Laquan McDonald and others. And now the man some observers have called a leading candidate to become Chicago's next top cop has already weighed in on the controversy and the mayor's handling of it.

Cedric Alexander, the current public safety director in DeKalb County, Georgia, outside Atlanta, says Emanuel, who will make the ultimate recommendation in choosing the city's next police superintendent, has a lot of work to do.

"The mayor is going to have to do more than just fire McCarthy quite frankly. He's got to answer some very tough questions himself politically," Alexander said.

The comments came on the day last December when Mayor Emanuel fired former superintendent Garry McCarthy. Since then, the city has received applications from 39 candidates to replace McCarthy, including a number from inside the department as well as a number from outside Chicago.

"My principal is... safety... every part of the city, rather than some parts," Emanuel said.

Some aldermen are lobbying for the next superintendent to come from within the department.

The mayor says it would be inappropriate for him to comment about candidates at this point. But he is not opposed to the city's next superintendent coming from another city as was the case with McCarthy, who was from New Jersey. The mayor will recommend a candidate to the city council from three finalists given to him by the police review board.