Meet the Final Five Candidates for Cocoa’s Next Chief of Police On March 29-30

By  //  March 25, 2021

each candidate will have the opportunity to introduce themselves

The final five candidates for the next Cocoa police  chief will meet with the community at two public forums on Monday, March 29 at the Dr. Joe Lee Smith Community Center and Tuesday, March 30, at Eastern Florida State College Cocoa Campus Community Room.

BREVARD COUNTY • COCOA, FLORIDA – The final five candidates for the next Cocoa police  chief will meet with the community at two public forums on Monday, March 29 at the Dr. Joe Lee Smith Community Center and Tuesday, March 30, at Eastern Florida State College Cocoa Campus Community Room.

The following candidates are in the running and will appear during the forums; click on the link to see each candidate’s resume:

■ Evander Collier IV

■ Lori Pollock

■ James Steffens

■ Richard Vasquez

■ Michael Wallace

Both meetings, which will start at 6 pm., will begin with a meet the candidate open networking session. Then each candidate will have the opportunity to introduce themselves.

Finally, questions will be asked of each candidate that were submitted by the public ahead of time. If time permits, there will be opportunity for questions from the audience as well.

The recruitment process to hire Cocoa’s next chief of police began in September 2020 where the City developed criteria for the ideal candidate for the position.

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Meetings with members of City Council to identify characteristics including management style, department focus, and experience were conducted.

Input from police department personnel, the Police Community Relations Advisory Board and surveys to the residents were all collected in this development phase.

In late 2020 and early 2021, a national broad-based recruitment search was conducted and this past February a committee of resident and business owner volunteers was established to help staff review applications.

Over 80 applications were submitted for the position and the committee was able to select 5 qualified candidates for the City to consider for the position.

The final steps in the process include interviews with the Cocoa city manager and the selection should be finalized by mid April.

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