Georgia official: Former Rochester police chief could return
An official in DeKalb County, Ga., said that county's chief executive officer met Monday morning to discuss the county's police chief, Cedric Alexander — a former Rochester chief who Warren acknowledged Monday she'd interviewed for the soon-to-be open job here.
"We were in a meeting at 10 a.m. and the CEO came out of a meeting with Cedric Alexander, and when the meeting broke up the commissioner and the CEO went back upstairs so, the rumor is hot and heavy, but we still haven't gotten confirmation," said Bob Lundsten, an assistant to Commissioner Elaine Boyer.
"I know the topic of conversation was Chief Alexander. I know that's who they were meeting about. When the CEO was running late for our 10 a.m. meeting his chief of staff came downstairs and said they were meeting downstairs regarding the chief of police."
Lundsten said no announcement has been made about Alexander's future.
Burke Brennan, a spokesman for interim Chief Executive Officer Lee May, said he was unaware of the meeting and had no additional information.
Warren last week announced that she had narrowed her field of police chief candidates to three, and one was from outside the department.
On Monday she declined to announce who would be replacing exiting Chief James Sheppard, but acknowledged that she had interviewed Alexander for the job.
She said her announcement on the police chief job and other appointments would likely be made Monday.
A native of Pensacola, Fla., Alexander started his law enforcement career in 1977 as a deputy with the Leon County Sheriff's Office. He held a similar position with the Orange County Sheriff's Office, then worked as an officer with Metro Miami-Dade County Police from 1981 to 1992.
In 1997, he moved from Florida to Rochester to complete his postdoctoral work at the University of Rochester and while there attracted the attention of City Hall and the city police department. He helped start the Officer Assistance Program, for cops experiencing work-related trauma, then was hired as the department's director of organizational development, an administrative role akin to a deputy chief, in 2002.
He was named acting chief when then-chief Robert Duffy announced his candidacy for mayor in 2005. When Duffy won the election nine months later, Alexander's future with the city became uncertain, and he left to become deputy commissioner with the state Division of Criminal Justice Services.
JHAND@DemocratandChronicle.com