Are police chiefs elected or appointed? In almost every city in the United States, the police chief is appointed — hired by a mayor, city manager, or city council, and answerable to whichever official brought them in. Elections for the job exist but are rare, confined mostly to very small towns and some tribal nations. The confusion usually traces back to sheriffs, who are a different office entirely and are elected in nearly every state.
Who Appoints the Chief
The appointing authority depends on the form of local government. In council-manager cities, the city manager typically hires the chief and supervises the department the way any department head is supervised. In mayor-council cities, the mayor usually makes the appointment, sometimes subject to city council confirmation. A handful of larger cities layer in a civilian police commission that plays a direct role in selection and oversight. Los Angeles is the best-known example, where a five-member commission functions like a board of directors with the chief as its chief executive.
Whichever official holds the appointing power, the chief runs a city agency and reports up through city government. That structure is deliberate. The person who hired the chief can set expectations, demand results, and replace the chief if performance slips.
Why Appointment Is the Standard
The reasoning behind appointing rather than electing chiefs comes down to professional expertise and chain of command. A police department is a municipal operation with a budget, personnel decisions, union contracts, and policies that shift with circumstances. The appointing authority wants a chief who answers to a boss on a daily basis, not to voters on a four-year cycle.
Cities have generally treated law enforcement leadership as a management job requiring specific qualifications: years of command-rank experience, valid Peace Officer Standards and Training certification in the state, and often a bachelor’s or master’s degree in criminal justice or public administration. Elections don’t test for any of that.
Police Chiefs vs. Sheriffs
The question almost always comes from confusion between two different offices. A police chief leads a municipal police department and is appointed by city officials. A sheriff leads a county law enforcement agency and is elected by voters in that county. Nearly every state has a constitutional or statutory provision requiring sheriffs to be elected, and many state constitutions create the office directly.
The accountability structures follow from that split. A sheriff answers to voters at the ballot box. A police chief answers to the mayor, city manager, or council member who signs off on the hiring. A city can remove its police chief quickly, sometimes within days. Removing an elected sheriff before the end of a term usually requires a recall election or criminal charges.
How the Appointment Process Works
Hiring a police chief is one of the more consequential decisions a city makes, and the process usually unfolds over several months.
- The appointing authority, often working with a search committee of community members, law enforcement professionals, and local officials, defines the priorities and qualities the next chief should bring. Larger jurisdictions sometimes hire executive search firms to run the recruitment.
- The city decides whether to keep the search internal, open it to outside applicants, or both. A national search broadens the pool but can create friction with officers who expected to move up.
- Applicants go through background investigations, resume reviews, and multiple interview rounds. Finalists typically appear before panels that include city executives, law enforcement partners, and sometimes community stakeholders.
- The appointing authority makes the choice. Many city charters require a formal confirmation vote by the city council.
Where Residents Fit In
Public involvement has grown. Cities increasingly hold open forums where residents meet finalists, ask questions, and submit feedback. Community surveys before the search begins help define what residents want in their next chief, whether that’s a focus on violent crime, community policing, transparency, or accountability. Residents don’t get a binding vote, but the input shapes the criteria the appointing authority uses and creates a public record of what the community expects.
Most states have open meetings laws, but hiring discussions often fall under a personnel exception, so deliberations about individual candidates can happen behind closed doors. The final vote to hire is almost always public, and many states require the vote and each council member’s position to be disclosed shortly after the decision.
Civilian Oversight Boards
A growing number of cities have established civilian oversight bodies that add another layer of accountability. Cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Kansas City, and Detroit established civilian police commissions decades ago, giving them a role in selecting the chief, approving policy, and overseeing discipline.1U.S. Department of Justice COPS Office. Civilian Oversight of the Police in Major Cities Authority varies widely: some boards can investigate complaints independently and make disciplinary recommendations, while others are purely advisory. Where a commission plays a role in hiring, it acts as a check on the mayor’s appointment power.
How Chiefs Are Removed
The other side of appointment is removal, and this is where the appointed-versus-elected distinction has its sharpest practical edge. Most chiefs serve under employment agreements that specify they serve “at will” or “at the pleasure of” the city manager or mayor, meaning they can be let go at any time with or without cause. Some contracts set a fixed term, commonly two to four years, that can be renewed or allowed to expire.
Severance provisions are standard. A chief terminated without cause can typically expect several months of base salary, often conditioned on signing a release of claims against the city and returning city property. A chief fired for cause — misconduct, criminal behavior, or gross mismanagement — usually forfeits severance and receives only compensation earned through the termination date.
Because most chiefs are at-will employees, removal can happen quickly. A city manager can fire the chief and name an interim the same day. Some jurisdictions require a city council vote, which adds deliberation and public scrutiny. Even where state law provides procedural protections like written notice and an opportunity to respond, the process is far faster than removing an elected official. When residents are unhappy with a police chief, pressure on the mayor or city manager can produce a change. When residents are unhappy with a sheriff, the options are the next election or a recall campaign.
Research from the Police Executive Research Forum has found that average chief tenure is approximately 7.3 years, longer than many people assume, with chiefs of smaller departments often serving longer than those running the largest agencies.2Police Executive Research Forum. Police Chiefs Compensation and Career Pathways – PERF 2021 Survey Results
The Rare Elected Exceptions
Elected municipal police chiefs do exist, but they are genuinely rare and almost exclusively found in very small or rural jurisdictions. Some tribal nations also elect their police chiefs. The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, for example, elects its tribal police chief to a four-year term, with a police commission providing oversight and the authority to remove the chief by majority vote for insubordination or failure to follow its directives.3Tribal Government of Menominee Indian Tribe of WI. Article III Police Chief
These exceptions prove the general rule. For the roughly 12,000 local police departments across the country, the chief is hired by the city government and can be replaced by it.
Influencing Who Leads Your Department
If you want a say in who runs your local police department, the ballot box usually isn’t where to look. In most places, the effective path is engaging with the appointing authority: showing up at council meetings when a search is underway, responding to community surveys, attending public forums with finalists, and communicating directly with the mayor, city manager, or council members who will make and confirm the choice. And when you vote in local elections for mayor or city council, you’re already voting for the people who will pick the chief.