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No job search for Buffalo police commissioner

"I felt that I had the right candidate in the department," Brown told Investigative Post about Lockwood's appointment.

Mayor Byron Brown didn’t search for job applicants or interview any candidates other than Byron Lockwood before he nominated him to succeed Daniel Derenda as police commissioner in February.

Selecting a police commissioner without conducting a job search is not standard practice for large municipalities.

Other cities take their candidate hunts national by posting on professional police association job forums, like the one provided by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. In towns like Amherst and Cheektowaga, applicants take a civil service exam and only the three top-scoring candidates are considered for the position by the town boards.

Under the City Charter, the mayor nominates department heads, including the police commissioner, and the Common Council is responsible for vetting and confirming them.

The Brown administration conducted an extensive search for police commissioner in 2006 when Brown was first elected mayor, recruiting a pool of 50 candidates and interviewing 18 of them before recommending H. McCarthy Gibson for the post. A more limited job search that fell short of the national search that Brown had promised was conducted in 2010 when the mayor nominated Derenda.

“I felt that I had the right candidate in the department,” Brown told Investigative Post about Lockwood’s appointment.

“I felt very comfortable with Commissioner Lockwood’s experience, his credentials, his service to the community, and his vision for the future of the department.”

The absence of a formal recruitment process comes in the face of a series of troubling developments involving the police department.

Read the full story on Investigative Post's website here.

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