Charlottesville’s Police Civilian Oversight Board (PCOB) is hosting a forum to ask questions of three candidates for the next police chief.
The forum will take place in person Monday, Nov. 28, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Carver Recreation Center in the Jefferson School City Center at 233 4th St. NW. It will also air on Comcast Channel 10 and streamed live at this link.
David Dillehunt, Charlottesville’s deputy director of communications, said that the city will release the names of the candidates prior to the forum. He said he does not know why interim city manager Michael C. Rogers, who chose the candidates, is not releasing their names sooner.
Update: The city released the names of the three candidates at noon on Monday. They are the current acting chief Latroy A. “Tito” Durrette, and two candidates from northern Virginia: Michael Kochis, police chief of the Warrenton Police Department and Easton L. McDonald, a commander in Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.
Community members can submit their own questions for the candidates by emailing pcob@charlottesville.gov or by leaving a voicemail at 434-970-3794. The PCOB is encouraging those who leave questions to also let them know if you live or work in the Charlottesville area so they can prioritize questions from the community. Members of the board might also have their own questions.
“The goal is to gather as many questions as possible from the community, and we suspect some of them may be able to be combined as they might be asking the same inquiry,” Dillehunt wrote in an email.
Rogers will use the forum to help make his nomination for the next police chief to City Council.
“The forum provides an opportunity for the community to hear the candidates and how they respond to questions posed. This provides information for the Interim City Manager in making his decision on who to nominate for Police Chief and submit to City Council for approval,” wrote Dillehunt.
The city has been without a permanent police chief since September 2021, when former Charlottesville City Manager Chip Boyles fired RaShall Brackney. Durrette is leading the department as acting chief. The city hired POLIHIRE Strategy Corporation to conduct the search in July with a base contract of $35,000.
The city is also looking for a new director for the PCOB. The first director, Hansel Aguilar resigned in October after serving in the position for one year.
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