Assistant Police Chief Jim McDonnell and Deputy Chiefs Charlie Beck and Michel Moore were named Tuesday as finalists to replace William Bratton as head of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he will interview all three individually by the end of the week before choosing a nominee, who will then need to be confirmed by the City Council. Bratton’s last day with the department is Saturday.

“Over the next several days, I will thoroughly evaluate these very qualified candidates, evaluate them not just on their experience, their skill set, but on their integrity, their character, fortitude, their leadership,” Villaraigosa said.

“Discuss with them how they see the community role as a positive role alongside of the police department; how they plan to maintain the reforms that have helped transform the Los Angeles Police Department; talk to them about their commitment to the city’s new, progressive approach to keeping kids out of gangs and addressing the root causes of crime.

“This process will be comprehensive and thorough. I will move expeditiously, but let me be clear, I will take all the time that I need to make the very best, most informed decision for the people of Los Angeles,” the mayor said.

Villaraigosa added that he will “reach out to a broad cross section of our city for advice and counsel. I will speak to members from virtually every stakeholder community before I am finished in my deliberations.”

The three finalists were chosen by the Los Angeles Police Commission, which interviewed 13 candidates last week.

John Mack, president of the commission, said the five-member panel unanimously selected the three finalists after a three-and-a-half hour meeting behind closed doors.

“It was very difficult because, first of all, we have some outstanding [leaders at the LAPD),” Mack said. “When you start narrowing it down, and when you get down to the nitty-gritty in terms of who should be the last personin or out, that was a very, very difficult decision.”

“We took this very seriously and we very carefully looked at the leadership qualities, the strengths, the weaknesses of those candidates, but it was tough,” Mack said. “Clearly this is the most important decision that we’ve had the opportunity to be part of.”

Beck, commander of the LAPD Detective Bureau, joined the department in 1977 after serving two years in the Los Angeles Police Reserve Corps. He was promoted to sergeant in 1984, lieutenant in 1993 and captain in 1999. He continue rising through the ranks, and was named a deputy chief in August 2006.

McDonnell, the department’s second-in-command, has been with the LAPD since 1981. He oversees a variety of divisions within the LAPD, including the Employee Relations Group, Public Information Office, Use-of-Force Review Division, Community Relations Section and Governmental Liaison Section.

Moore, the commander of the department’s Valley Bureau, has been with the LAPD for 27 years. He rose through the ranks, beginning as an officer and rising to the rank of captain in 1998. He oversaw the LAPD’s Rampart division after the corruption scandal that rocked that station. He was promoted to deputy chief in 2004.

When Bratton steps down Saturday, Deputy Chief Michael Downing will take over as interim chief until a final decision is made on a new chief. Downing oversees the LAPD’s counter-terrorism unit.

“I’m going to be put in the role of a shepherd,” Downing said. “The real goal is that we have a smooth transition, that the department and the communities are stable, and that we feed the morale so that we have the support we need to
keep the department in a positive direction.”

Bratton strongly endorsed picking a member of his command staff to replace him. Downing was one of the few members of the command staff who did not apply for the job of police chief.

The mayor’s deputy chief of staff, Matt Szabo, said Villaraigosa’s schedule was
cleared so he could meet with each of the finalists, “so if he wants to spend the whole day with the candidate he’s free to do so.”

Villaraigosa also plans to consult with an advisory group composed of retired federal judge Lourdes Baird, human rights activist Stewart Kwoh, legal expert Ron Olson, civil rights activist Connie Rice and former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who will serve as chairman. Villaraigosa will meet with the advisory group again after the last interview.

“The chief of police of the Los Angeles Police Department is the most important, high-profile law enforcement position in the nation,” the mayor said. “There’s no other office more critical to the health and safety of the neighborhoods of our city than that of the police chief. Choosing the next police chief is the single most important personnel decision I will make for the remainder of my term as mayor, and maybe the single most important decision I will make in that time.”

Once he chooses a candidate, Villaraigosa plans to reach out to various neighborhoods to introduce his nominee. The nominee will also meet with each member of the City Council, as well as with the city attorney and city controller.

The earliest date the City Council can confirm the nominee is Nov. 10.

Bratton, 62, is leaving Saturday to move back to New York and join an international security firm, Altegrity, which specializes in bringing “professional, modern criminal justice systems” to post-conflict nations like Afghanistan and Iraq.

His nearly seven-year tenure at the helm of the LAPD was praised for driving crime rates to historic lows. Among other achievements, Bratton increased the department’s ranks to 10,000 police officers and helped it achieve compliance with the federal consent decree imposed after the 1998 Rampart scandal.