Savannah's police chief search: What to know about the approach to hiring city's top cop

Savannah City Council on Thursday approved the spending of $45,000 towards the search for a new Savannah Police chief, adhering to an ambitious schedule to identify, interview and hire a candidate before year's end.

That schedule was made by Savannah City Manager Jay Melder, who will ultimately get the final say in who will take up the mantle of former Chief Roy Minter.

While the search firm, Police Executive Recruitment Forum, known by the acronym PERF, was already contracted, Thursday's vote serves as an invoice. An emergency procurement comes when the city manager seeks to spend more than $25,000 and must go before council for approval.

Typically, these emergency procurement measures come after the work is done, and all the invoices from the contractors are in. But Melder said a guiding principle of the search for Savannah's next chief is transparency and believes putting this on the agenda would reinforce that goal.

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City manager seeks community input

Both PERF and Melder have already begun the search process. Melder has been meeting with community groups at public forums, discussing what superlatives Savannahians seek in the next top cop, with PERF representatives there to refine their search criteria.

Melder said the conversations have been "fruitful" and spoke highly of the opinions he's heard from neighborhood associations, business and non-profit leadership, faith leaders, community advisory boards with council-tapped representatives, young leadership and meetings with SPD personnel.

"They want to see the police chief out and about the community, not just when, you know, something bad happens, but is somebody who's relatable and approachable and accessible, somebody who wants to engage with them on the issues," Melder said.

Melder said that desire for the chief to engage with the community has been a common thread throughout the conversations, "for the community to know their police chief," he said.

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Other items on the wish list include gun violence prevention methods, dealing with the growth of the area, how the department responds to mental health calls, de-escalation — it's a long list, Melder said.

"This isn't my first police search. But it's my first police search in Savannah, and I've learned a lot about this community. But there's a lot that I still have to learn, obviously," Melder said. "I wanted to be able to start this search and start this process centered on feedback that I got from the broadest set of stakeholders that I could get, and I wanted to speak directly to them."

Additionally, the city has posted an online survey for community members to complete, asking them to rank the criteria they seek in a new police chief.

Search Firm

PERF, the non-profit group contracted to conduct the nationwide search, led the search for former Savannah-Chatham Metro Police Chief David Berkow in 2006. Berkow kept the job until 2009, when he stepped down as chief to work in the private sector. He later became director of the Coast Guard Investigative Service in 2012.

PERF also led the search for the U.S. Capitol Police's new chief, which came after the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol. Melder said PERF's work was "unparalleled."

Former Capitol police Chief Steven Sund was forced out a day after the riot, and PERF was contracted to find a new one. Current Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger was hired on July 15, seven months after.

Melder says he hopes to have Savannah's search done even faster — by the end of the calendar year, about four months and a week.

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‘Tentative’ timeline

Melder outlined the search process timeline in an Aug. 5 memo to council members.

The community survey will close Sept. 2, and once those findings are analyzed, the final approval and posting of the position will take place Sept. 6. Melder said the results of the survey will be publicly available as well.

Applicants will have until Oct. 10 to apply.

The week of Oct. 24, a “refined list” of candidates will be presented to Melder for consideration.

From Nov. 7-27, interviews with the candidates will be conducted. And in December, the city will conduct background investigations into the candidates, and Melder will announce his selection.

Melder calls this timeline “tentative” in the memo, a “general set of milestones and an estimated completion date.”

But he says getting the right chief is more important than hiring someone to fill the role quickly. The timeline is to keep the process moving along.

"It's important to have timelines. It's important to have milestones in any kind of process that you're running. But the goal, the overarching goal, is to get the best police chief for Savannah that we can get," Melder said. "That's the ultimate goal."

He also lauded the interim leadership of Savannah police and credited their competency for allowing him the time to find the right candidate. Interim Chief Lenny Gunther has already said he would be applying for the job full-time.

"The real ability for us to be able to focus in on getting the right chief is we've got really great leadership at SPD right now. And I have an enormous amount of faith and full confidence in Interim Chief Gunther, and in our assistant chiefs, [Devonn] Adams and [Robert] Gavin and the entire command staff," Melder said. "They're really doing a heck of a job right now, moving us in the right direction."

Will Peebles is the City Council and County Commission reporter for Savannah Morning News, covering local Savannah and Chatham County decisions. He can be reached at wpeebles@savannahnow.com or on Twitter @willpeeblesSMN

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: City manager: Savannah wants approachable, engaging police chief