Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa may name an interim chief for the LAPD or leave the post vacant for several weeks following William Bratton's departure at the end of October, the Los Angeles Times reports.
At least 11 of the department's deputy and assistant chiefs have applied for the job.
Bratton is returning to New York to lead a private security firm, leaving a post he has held since 2002. He has been credited with reshaping a department that has operated under a consent decree since the Rampart Scandal.