BATON ROUGE - Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome acknowledged on Friday concern in the community regarding who will be selected as the next chief of police, and what ties that new leader may have to the current administration.

The mayor spoke at a news conference that began with outgoing chief Murphy Paul discussing criminal charges against four officers, including Deputy Chief Troy Lawrence, Sr., on various felony counts.

In July, Paul announced he would step down from his post, but said he would remain until early November to allow for time for a transition in leadership.

When the window for applications closed, 23 candidates who met the requirements were in consideration. They have since taken a test that will be considered by the mayor as she works to whittle down the list.

WBRZ asked a representative of Mayor President Broome on Thursday whether she was concerned that 15 of the candidates are current employees of the BRPD, with two more having previously worked for the department. That question was addressed at Friday's news conference.

"I am going to take a hard look at all of the candidates to make sure that we have the right lot," she said. "I will start the process over if I cannot find the experience, the courage, the vision and the leadership set to address the needs we have in and out of our department."

Broome said her choice for chief will be someone committed to a new vision for the police department.

"We know that we must eradicate any remnants of injustice or improper actions to clean up a culture that has been around for 150 years," she said. "I believe that there are some people in the community who have some genuine authentic concerns about internal candidates, but we do have a process and as we move forward with that pross a level of community input will be included."

Broome will get the test results from the applicant pool in about three weeks.