Geisha Kow­lessar

A can­di­date for the post of Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er is ex­pect­ed to be se­lect­ed by the end of May.

A source at the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion is con­fi­dent a can­di­date will be cho­sen well be­fore the dead­line date of June 30. Ac­cord­ing to the source yes­ter­day, out of the ten can­di­dates who have al­ready been cho­sen, five were ex­pect­ed to be se­lect­ed by the mid­dle of May. Af­ter se­lect­ing the top five, the can­di­dates would then be screened by mem­bers of the com­mis­sion who would then make a rec­om­men­da­tion for the post of Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er. That process, the source said, was ex­pect­ed to take two weeks.

"We will have a can­di­date well be­fore the dead­line date. We are con­fi­dent of that," the source added. The spokesman said the ten names have not been dis­closed to the com­mis­sion as on­ly the top five would be passed on to its mem­bers. Last year, the com­mis­sion rec­om­mend­ed for the post Stephen Williams, who held the same rank as act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er James Philbert. How­ev­er, this was re­ject­ed by Par­lia­ment. Dur­ing that time Penn State was award­ed a $3 mil­lion con­tract for the se­lec­tion process.

Ear­li­er this year, Cab­i­net al­so al­lo­cat­ed a $4 mil­lion bud­get in con­sul­tan­cy fees for Penn State to again un­der­take the se­lec­tion process. Philbert al­ready has been giv­en two six-month ex­ten­sions, the lat­est be­ing last De­cem­ber 8 af­ter his term of of­fice end­ed. Deputy Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gilbert Reyes, whose term pre­vi­ous­ly ex­pired, al­so was grant­ed an­oth­er ex­ten­sion.