MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission unanimously voted to end the current search for a new police chief and restart the process this September.
The decision comes after former Police Chief Alfonso Morales accepted a financial settlement with the city. The FPC demoted him to captain last year, he resigned from the police department and a judge ruled he had not been given due process. The judge further ruled the city must come to a settlement with Morales or reinstate him to police chief.
Only one of three finalists the FPC whittled down to in its search for a new chief is still interested in the job: Hoyt Mahaley, who calls Milwaukee home and started his career with the Milwaukee Police Department. He's served with the Federal Bureau of Investigations since then.
Current Acting Police Chief Jeffery Norman also continues to show interest in becoming chief.
Board Chair Ed Fallone noted during an emergency meeting Tuesday evening that four of the seven current commissioners had not been on the board during the previous search for a new chief. Commissioners agreed that the process to find a new chief should include them all and thus the termination of the current search and the creation of a new search made sense to them.
Malik Aziz, who had been named one of three finalists for the position, was named the next chief of police for the Prince George’s County Police Department in Maryland. Chris Davis, another finalist, was named the next police chief of the Green Bay Police Department - leaving Mahaley the last finalist still interested in leading the Milwaukee Police Department.
Mahaley reaffirmed that interest in a letter TMJ4 News obtained on Tuesday.
The FPC last year failed to find a majority between those three candidates, and legal issues with former Chief Morales grinded the search to a halt. The FPC tied in two votes between Aziz and Mahaley.
