BATON ROUGE- The committee helping to select the city's next police chief will meet publicly this week to interview the first five of eight candidates.

Candidates will be interviewed publicly between two meetings: One on Wednesday and then on Nov.30.

A public comment session will be held on Dec. 7 and the committee will submit five finalists to Mayor Sharon Weston Broome, according to Broome's office. The meetings will be held in Metro Council chambers.

The Mayor hopes to hire a chief before the end of the year.

Twelve candidates qualified and took the civil service test for the job. Eleven passed the test. Three candidates chose not to move forward with the process.

As of Monday afternoon, the mayor's office said the candidates were: Myron K. Daniels, Samuel L. Wyatt, Jeremy A. Kent, Sharon W. Douglas, Paul J. Murphy, Ronald W. Stevens, Robert McGarner and Darryl W. Honore'.