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GREENSBORO - Among the qualities sought by city leaders and residents in Greensboro's next police chief: a good communicator who can build trust and confidence in the community and within the police force.

The process for picking a replacement for police Chief David Wray, who resigned Monday, is unclear. At a news conference Monday, City Manager Mitchell Johnson said he hadn't thought about the hiring process and declined further comment.

While the city is likely several months away from picking a chief, community leaders already have ideas about what they want in a new leader for the department.

Mayor Keith Holliday said the next chief would need to be a strong communicator and "has to build back up the confidence within the department and outside the department that everything is still going to run smooth."

Councilwoman Yvonne Johnson said she hoped the chief "listens to the people who work for him or her and are sensitive to their needs and what they feel is important to them."

Marie Stamey, president of the Eastside Park Neighborhood Association, said she thought Wray did a good job of meeting with residents and hopes the city finds someone who would do the same.

"I would say a new chief would have to be a people person, someone not afraid to go out and talk to people," Stamey said.

A new chief will have to tackle the controversial rotating schedules Wray implemented a year ago. Every 16 days, officers' start times change so that over two months, they will have patrolled the city at all hours. Wray wanted to provide for constant learning and for fairness in patrol assignments. But the move was met with complaints from officers, who said the schedules interrupted sleep and family schedules.

Under a new chief, doing away with the rotating shifts worked by officers could help communities, said Mojgan Jordan, an executive board member and past president of the Glenwood Neighborhood Association. As it stands, residents don't know which officers to turn to for consistent problems. "I hope that they could keep officers regular," she said.

Johnson and fellow council member Mike Barber also want to see the department's next leader devote more resources and efforts to tackling the city's high-crime areas.

Along with an emphasis on improving response times and focusing on property crimes, Barber would also like to see at least some discussion of whether to combine the city's police force with the Guilford County Sheriff's Department and whether one police force would be more effective and efficient.

Staff writers Amy Dominello and Eric J.S. Townsend contributed to this story.

Contact Eric Swensen at 883-4422, Ext. 227, or eswensen@news-record.com