RALEIGH — Interim Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown is among the 50 applicants from across the country who have applied for the city’s top cop job.

Deck-Brown was Raleigh’s deputy chief until Oct. 1, when Harry Patrick Dolan retired after five years as chief. City Manager Russell Allen appointed her interim chief until a new one is named, likely early next year.

The application deadline was Oct. 25. Allen said he is working with an internal team to review the résumés and determine how many applicants are qualified to run a police department of 777 sworn officers, 102 civilian employees and an annual budget this year of $88.3 million.

Allen said his office received résumés from all over the United States.

“Our goal is to whittle the list down to between four to six and then work that down to between two and four,” he said. “Then we will announce our finalist candidates.”

After the finalists are announced, they will be invited to share the stage at a community forum. Each will be asked the same questions based on feedback from police employees and the community.

“The public gets to hear their answers,” Allen said.

Allen said “it’s still a little bit early to know” when he will make a final decision, but he expects the city to have a new chief soon after the public forum that he thinks will take place in January.

If Deck-Brown is hired, she would become the first African-American woman to serve as Raleigh’s police chief. It would also be the first time since 1994 that the city has chosen a chief from within the department’s own ranks.

In 1994, Deck-Brown’s brother in-law, Mitchell Brown, was hired as Raleigh’s police chief and served nearly seven years before retiring in 2000.

In 2001, the city went outside the department and hired Jane Perlov, a former New York City chief of detectives and Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety.

Perlov left the job in 2007 to become head of security with Bank of America in Charlotte.

The city then launched another national search and hired Dolan, a former Raleigh patrol officer who had worked as chief of the Grand Rapids Police Department in Michigan for nearly 10 years.

The city chose Dolan over the other finalist, Kent Sholar, who had spent 24 years with the department and served as interim chief during the search.

Like Sholar, Deck-Brown worked her way up through the department, which she joined in 1987. Police spokesman Jim Sughrue confirmed that she was a candidate for the chief’s job. She was not available for comment.

McDonald: 919-829-4533