More than 45 people applied for the St. Charles police chief position, according to Mayor Sally Faith. Those candidates came from 21 different states.

The city conducted a national search for a new police chief, after former Chief Dennis Corley resigned in April.

The city contracted with a search group to sort and rank the applicants into various tiers.

"The response was really great," Faith said. "There's going to be some further looking at it by the committee."

The committee comprises St. Charles County Sheriff Tom Neer, Tom Hughes, a St. Charles County builder and former police officer, council members Laurie Feldman and Ron Stivision, Director of Administration Michael Spurgeon, Faith and a representative from human resources.

Faith said the committee will narrow the top candidates to three or four and either do an interview over video or in person. 

"We've got a lot of good candidates," she said. "I'm hoping that narrowing down gets down to the right one."

Faith said the city expected to hire someone by the end of the year.

In May, the city hired St. Louis Police Captain Lawrence Stulce as interim police chief in St. Charles while the city conducted a search for a replacement. Stulce has been asked to weigh in on a number of issues ranging from security concerns on Main Street to the overall organization of the police department.