Gil Kerlikowske, Obama Drug Czar, Wants To Be Chicago Police Superintendent

WASHINGTON -- The White House drug czar says he wants to be Chicago's next top cop.

Gil Kerlikowske, head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Wednesday he applied for the job and "wouldn't have applied for it if I didn't want it."

Several television stations had previously reported that Kerlikowske interviewed for the Chicago police superintendent's job with both mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel and the police board in the last week.

Kerlikowske, who spoke to The Associated Press during an interview for C-SPAN's "Newsmakers," is a career law enforcement officer who was police chief in Seattle before taking the White House job.

Comments

[Dimplezzz2002]

12:38 AM on 04/23/2011

So Chicago doesn't have anyone in the rank and file qualified to be top cop?

Sigh!

Going outside the Chicago Police Department is such an insult to our career officers, just as going outside the Chicago Public Schools to find a CEO and CEdO is an insult to the outstanding educators in the system.

[corwin]

09:12 PM on 04/21/2011

Was his job (funding) cut by the Repubs?

[kramereng]

01:37 AM on 04/21/2011

Pretty sure every Drug Czar has utterly failed at their job so I'm not sure how that's supposed to be a "resume builder."

Unless, of course, he chose not to fight the war on drugs, in which case I support him. But I don't think that happened.

[zombywulf]

11:54 PM on 04/20/2011

He was terrible in Seattle and Chicago could do better hiring a dead cat.

[KevinOConnor]

01:20 AM on 04/21/2011

Noted. We'll take the dead cat.

[Le Facteur 99]

05:50 PM on 04/20/2011

Another outsider won't get it done in Chicago.

[nopaytaxes]

04:41 PM on 04/20/2011

Might as well he's use to doing nothing