City adds 8th finalist for police director
The search to replace Memphis Police Department Director Mike Rallings will take longer than expected, the city of Memphis said Monday.
The city planned on naming Ralling’s successor and having that person confirmed by the Memphis City Council on April 6, but, now, Rallings will retire on April 14 without a successor in place, the city said. Instead, Deputy Director Mike Ryall, who is due to retire in June, will be the interim director.
The city said it had extended the timeline for the search, in part, because the city has added an eighth finalist to the seven already announced. That candidate is Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis, the police chief in Durham, North Carolina.
“To maintain the integrity of the process, we will be reconvening the original community panels to interview this candidate and to provide feedback. Memphis is fortunate to have such an excellent field of law enforcement professionals interested in leading our police department, and we’re excited to complete this process,” the city said in a news release.
The city used a series of panels to interview the finalists. The panelists gave their feedback to the city administration. Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland will also interview Davis, like he interviewed the seven other finalists.
The’ addition of Davis makes it five outside finalists to go with three
internal candidates for the job of Memphis’ top cop. The outsiders include Perry Tarrant, the former assistant police chief in Seattle; Joseph Sullivan, the former deputy police commissioner in Philadelphia; Anne Kirkpatrick, the former chief of the Oakland Police Department and Joel Fitzgerald, the former chief of police in Fort Worth, Texas and current chief in Waterloo, Iowa.
The three insiders include Sharonda Hampton, Samuel Hines and Michael Shearin, who all hold the rank of deputy chief in MPD. That rank is one below Deputy Director Ryall.
About Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis
Davis spent most of her career in the Atlanta Police Department and then retired in 2016 to take the role of chief in
Durham.
Here’s an excerpt of her bio on the city of Memphis’ police search website:
She is the Immediate Past President of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), and recently testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on the matter of Police Reform, in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd. She has since been featured on Good Morning America, CNN, and other networks as a subject matter expert on this important topic.
She serves on the Board of Directors for the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), and has been appointed to North Carolina Governor, Roy Cooper’s Racial Equity in Criminal Justice Task Force.
Samuel Hardiman covers Memphis city government and politics for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by email at samuel.hardiman@ commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter at @samhardiman.