A new holiday has emerged as the target date for Baltimore to get a new police commissioner.
Mayor Catherine Pugh said Tuesday that she’s hoping to name her choice “by Thanksgiving.”
City officials had initially said they aimed to have someone in place by Halloween and since that date passed have been reluctant to set a timeline.
But at a hearing Tuesday before a commission set up by state lawmakers in Annapolis, City Solicitor Andre Davis said he expected a pick would named “in the next week or so.”
Asked about that comment later, Pugh said “I am hoping before Thanksgiving.”
Pugh said last week that only one candidate was still under consideration. She had previously said Fort Worth Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald was among the finalists, but has not indicated whether he is the final candidate.
The Baltimore Police Department has been without a permanent leader since May, when federal prosecutors charged Darryl De Sousa with failing to file tax returns and he resigned. He had been installed by Pugh only months before.
The department is being led by interim Commissioner Gary Tuggle, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official. He applied for the job but ultimately withdrew his name from consideration.
Correction: A previous version of this story inaccurately described the body Andre Davis was addressing.
