The search for a new Greensboro police chief is now down to two candidates.

Police Chief Wayne Scott announced on August 9 that he would be retiring on Jan. 31, 2020. Scott has been chief since March 2015 and a Greensboro police officer since 1991.

Once Scott announced his retirement, the process started to complete a national search for Greensboro’s next police chief. As part of that process, 15 community forums and focus group meetings were held to acquire input on what the people of Greensboro felt was important to consider in hiring the new chief.

The city hired Developmental Associates to assist in the process.

The notices that went out about the position took into consideration the input from the community. The result was 39 applicants for the job that, according to Assistant City Manager Trey Davis, is “par for the course” for this type of position. Davis said that when the city went through a similar process before hiring Scott there were 44 applicants.

Based on the profile that was developed from information gathered at the community meetings, the original 39 were pared down to 15 by Developmental Associates. Those 15 were interviewed by Development Associates and completed an online survey.

The information from that process was used to pare the 15 down to six who were brought into an assessment center during the first week in December for personnel interviews by professionals and members of the community as well as staff from the city manager’s office.

Davis said this was a two-day process with different types of interviews including role playing to see how the applicants would respond to different situations.

Davis said that after the six were ranked based performance measures that they had reduced the six to two candidates and he said that discussions were ongoing on exactly what the next step would be. He said that they would like to introduce the finalists to the community but that could not be done without the permission of the candidates.

He said, “Early in January we will definitely be ready to move forward.”