Commissioner List Down to 5

The lengthy search for Cambridge's first-ever police commissioner has reached its final stage, as City Manager Robert W. Healy said yesterday that he has narrowed the list of candidates to five finalists.

The list includes at least three who have served as police chiefs of-major metropolitan areas and includes candidates from four different states, Healy said. All of the candidates--who survived a semifinal round of nine--are male, and four of them are Black, he said.

Healy said he is optimistic that he will be able to "make a decision and appoint a commissioner within a week." The City Council created the position in 1977 in response to concerns about the police department's ineffectual relationship with the community, but funding for the post has not been available until now.

In an interview yesterday, Healy identified four of the finalists presently living outside of the Boston area. These candidates include Perry Anderson, chief of police in Miami, Fla., and William Finney, a captain in the St. Paul, Minn., police department and a member of the St. Paul school board.

In addition, Healy listed Raymond Johnson, chief of police in Inglewood, Calif., and Clyde Cronkite, former police chief in Santa. Ana, Calif., and former deputy police chief in Los Angeles. Cronkite, the only white candidate, is now a professor at the University of Southern California.

Healy declined to name the candidate from Boston to protect him in the event that he does not receive the position.

He said he chose the five finalists after speaking with the all-male group of nine semifinalists during the past month and reviewing recommendations written by two expert and citizen advisory panels. The panels interviewed the candi- dates in early February, judging each one for his leadership, innovation, community involvement, multi-cultural sensitivity, overall ability to improve police operations and ability to communicate orally, Healy said last month.

Despite the fact that all but one of the candidates are minorities, Healy said that the selection process has focused primarily on finding the best candidate available, regardless of race.

"It's our goal to make affirmative action when the opportunity arises," he said. "But it was not the driving force in these selections."

Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice Mark H. Moore, who served on the professional advisory panel, said he was not surprised by the high percentage of minorities that made it into the final round.

"We looked very hard for the best candidates, and in doing so we were able to find a number of strong minority candidates," Moore said.

Johnson, the only finalist who could be reached yesterday, declined to comment