Police Chief Selection Process in Final Stage : LAPD: Commissioners schedule a series of interviews with six finalists at Sheinbaum’s home. They hope it provides a private, relaxed setting.

The closely watched effort to choose Police Chief Daryl F. Gates’ successor entered the final stage Monday as the Los Angeles Police Commission scheduled its first round of face-to-face interviews with six finalists.

The sessions, which will begin Wednesday morning at the Brentwood home of commission President Stanley K. Sheinbaum, are expected to last two to three hours each and explore the candidates’ plans for rebuilding the LAPD in the aftermath of the Rodney G. King beating scandal.

“We want to find out what they are thinking about the department, where they think it can be improved and what they think they can do about it,” said Sheinbaum.

Commissioners said this series of interviews, spanning several days, will be the first of three or four rounds of discussions with the candidates as the panel moves toward the selection of a new chief late next month.

“We want to get whole series of experiences with these people,” said Commissioner Ann Reiss Lane. “To me, the most important thing we have to do is spend as much time as possible with these candidates.”

Packets of background material on the candidates are being prepared by city personnel officials for the first round of interviews, including written essays each candidate submitted early in the screening process, which began last fall after Gates notified the city he would step down.

In-depth background investigations on the finalists are still being conducted by personnel officials and are likely to be covered in later interview sessions.

The unusual step of interviewing candidates at a gated, private home is intended to provide a comfortable setting for meetings crucial to the most important City Hall appointment in decades.

“It’s just to get it relaxed,” Sheinbaum said. “These are going to be in-depth discussions. . . . (We want) to take everybody out of their normal habitat, out of Parker Center (so they can) think as openly and freely as they can.”

Sheinbaum also said he hoped to give the candidates some relief from the “the pressure of the press waiting outside the door,” a reference to the reporters who routinely hover outside closed-door Police Commission meetings at police headquarters.

Four of the finalists--LAPD Deputy Chiefs Mark A. Kroeker, Matthew V. Hunt, Bernard C. Parks and Glenn A. Levant--will be interviewed in daylong sessions Wednesday and Thursday. LAPD Assistant Chief David D. Dotson is scheduled to interviewed Monday.

The top-scoring candidate, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Willie L. Williams, will be interviewed Friday and Saturday, Sheinbaum said. “We’ll probably spend a little more time with him . . . because if we have questions for (the LAPD candidates) we can call them up and make arrangements” for another session, he said.

Nonetheless, Williams is expected to make as many trips as needed to Los Angeles, Sheinbaum said.

In another development, Sheinbaum said scant detail will be made public on internal investigations of three of the finalists.

The commission ordered the probes after a Latino community group, NEWS for America, claimed one candidate may have been involved in obstruction of justice, while another allegedly had an improper romantic relationship. The group accused the third of intervening with department officials on behalf of relatives. While not officially identified by the group or the commission, records and interviews show the candidates are Hunt, Dotson and Parks--all of whom deny any improprieties.

Sheinbaum initially indicated that a public report on the inquiries would be made. But Monday he said employee confidentiality laws preclude the commission from publicly commenting on the specific investigations, despite the high profile of the inquiries.