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Kirkpatrick finalist for Chicago police superintendent

FILE - Anne Kirkpatrick, who served as Spokane’s police chief from 2006 to 2012, has reportedly been named police chief of Oakland, California. Here she’s seen outside Spokane City Hall in 2011. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)
By Rachel Alexander rachela@spokesman.com(509) 459-5406
FILE - Anne Kirkpatrick, who served as Spokane’s police chief from 2006 to 2012, has reportedly been named police chief of Oakland, California. Here she’s seen outside Spokane City Hall in 2011. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)

Former Spokane police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick is one of three finalists for Chicago police superintendent, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Thursday.

Kirkpatrick led the Spokane department for a turbulent five years from September 2006 to January 2012. During that time, the city dealt with the fallout from the March 2006 death of Otto Zehm, culminating in the prosecution of officer Karl Thompson on federal civil rights charges in 2011. She enjoyed strong support from the city’s elected leaders and the department’s captains and lieutenant union, but she clashed with the Spokane Police Guild over her discipline of officers.

After leaving Spokane, Kirkpatrick was hired as chief deputy at the King County Sheriff’s Office and retired in 2014. Since then, she’s been a Seattle-based instructor with the FBI’s Law Enforcement Executive Development Association, a private organization that contracts with the FBI for training services.