Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday introduced CPD chief Larry Snelling as his pick for the next superintendent of Chicago police, Johnson’s first major decision on public safety that will set the tone for how his administration will tackle crime for the next four years.

Snelling, 54, was one of three finalists put to Johnson last month by the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, a new city body created in 2021. In a news conference at City Hall, the mayor backed Snelling as an experienced choice who can “unify” the police department.

“Chief Larry Snelling is a proven leader who knows and holds dear the soul of Chicago,” Johnson said at a late morning press conference. “… He commands the highest respect of his brothers and sisters in the department, and I’m fully confident in his ability to unify and strengthen these critical public servants.”

The other finalists were Angel Novalez, CPD’s chief of constitutional policing and reform, and Shon Barnes, the chief of police in Madison, Wisc.

During his announcement, Snelling, an Englewood native, introduced himself and said he fully support’s the mayor’s belief in tackling the “root causes” of violence.

“The police department and our community members are not two separate institutions because they can’t be. We have to work together by listening and learning from each other,” Snelling said. “… I want to be clear about my belief in the Mayor’s vision in the full force of government. We cannot do this alone as a police department.”

At the same time, Snelling sought to underline his priority in building officer morale, which frayed further during the pandemic and recent crime waves.

“For our officers who risked their lives every day to protect our residents, I know what you sacrifice on a daily basis,” Snelling said. “I know the sacrifices that your family makes when you go out to the street to keep the city safe.”

Addressing reporters, Snelling credited the other finalists as well as interim superintendent Fred Waller. He also immediately nodded to ongoing issues facing the department, including the hundreds of migrants who are staying at Chicago police stations as they await shelter.

“I don’t have a timeline on that right now,” Snelling said about when they will be moved out of the lobbies. “But I can guarantee you that as long as those migrants are in our stations, they’re going to be treated with respect and dignity, like any human being should be.”

His top three priorities as superintendent are, in order: officer wellness and training, curbing violence and improving community relations.

“We really have to touch on violence,” Snelling said. “One of the things that I will tell you is that what I believe that we’ve forgotten everywhere are the victims of crime, the trauma that those victims deal with. We cannot forget about the victims.”

The most concrete change Snelling floated during his debut Monday was reforming the department’s fraught practice of promotions, though he did not get specific.

“To be totally honest, I would like to see the entire promotional process changed to take merit into account for promotion, and not just a test,” Snelling said. “This will give everybody a great opportunity of being promoted. We have to make sure that when we make promotions, we have the right people in the right places. Of course we’re looking for diversity, but to insist that a merit promotion is just about diversity is problematic.”

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Snelling joined CPD in 1992 and has spent much of his career as an instructor in the CPD training academy. Records from the city’s Department of Human Resources show was promoted to sergeant and lieutenant via the department’s much-maligned “merit” system. He also served as commander of the Englewood District, as well as deputy chief of Area 2 before he was promoted to chief of the bureau of counterterrorism in October 2022.

Given his experience as an instructor, Snelling is widely considered to be the CPD’s foremost expert on use-of-force scenarios. He’s been called to testify as an expert witness in more than two dozen court cases —criminal, civil and administrative — in recent years, including several cases that stemmed from the Laquan McDonald shooting video.