City officials have named five finalists to be Columbia’s next police chief, but interim Chief Ruben Santiago, who has led the department since April, isn’t one of them.
Columbia City Manager Teresa Wilson made the announcement Tuesday an hour after the city had closed for winter weather.
The five candidates — A. Tony Fisher, William Holbrook, Bryan Norwood, Charles Rapp and Gregory Reese — all have experience heading a law enforcement department.
All but one of the finalists is from outside of South Carolina.
Holbrook is currently the police chief of Huntington, W.Va., a city about half the size of Columbia. Huntington, like Columbia, is a college town; it is home to Marshall University, which is about a third of the size of USC.
Norwood, another candidate for the job, was most recently the police chief in Richmond, Va., and Bridgeport, Conn. Both cities are larger than Columbia.
Another out-of-state candidate is Rapp, who is the executive director of the Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commissions. Rapp also holds a master’s degree from The Johns Hopkins University.
Gregory Reese is the only candidate who is also a military officer. He is currently the chief of security forces for Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo. He has been police chief of four separate military police departments and currently serves as the regional police chief overseeing seven departments. Reese also earned his master’s degree from USC.
The only in-state candidate is Fisher, who most recently served as Spartanburg’s director of public safety. He has overseen the city’s police and fire departments in that post. He also served as police chief of Takoma Park, Md., a city of fewer than 18,000 people.
Each of the candidates will undergo a three-day assessment process that includes a public forum on Feb. 19 at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall. The five candidates will answer questions submitted by the public in advance. Questions must be received by Feb. 17; they can be submitted to columbiahr@columbiasc.net.
Santiago, who is currently under investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, said in a statement that he still has a duty to Columbia and will keep working to reduce crime.
“It has been my privilege to serve as both the Acting Chief and Interim Chief for the past year,” he wrote in the statement. “No matter who is ultimately chosen, we still have a job to do for the citizens of Columbia. I look forward to being a part of the new team.”