The pending retirement of Madison Police Chief Noble Wray prompted the Police and Fire Commission to begin the selection process for his successor.

According to a PFC statement, the commission is actively seeking input on the selection process for the replacement of Wray. Although the commission has not yet started collecting applications, they will hold a public hearing on Oct. 14 to gather feedback from the community.

Wray announced his retirement this summer, stating that he wanted to spend more time with his family. Wray said he stayed with the force in order to deal with an officer involved shooting and subsequent investigations from November. He will officially leave in January  2014 after 28 years on the force. Nine of those years were spent as head of the department.

Scott Herrick, PFC attorney, said the commission needs to decide whether the process will be internal within MPD or open to police departments across the nation before writing applications.

“The question is, do we draw a line around the department?” Herrick said.

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said the process for selecting a police chief has been both external and internal in the past, and has been successful both ways. However, he said, if the process was limited to applicants from just MPD it would be expedited.

There is not an official date set for the applicant to be picked, Herrick said, although it will probably be in early 2014. The PFC will start reviewing applicants by Oct. 30, the statement said.

Herrick said Wray will not be directly involved in the selection of the new chief, although he said he probably will have comments about what he would like to see from his successor later on in the process.

Verveer said the position of police chief is one of the most important in the city government, and that he hopes the new chief will have some of the same admirable qualities as Wray did.

“Chief Wray has a great number of the attributes I’d like to see in his successor,” Verveer said.

Wray said in his retirement announcement that his last day will probably be in September. Herrick said if a new chief has not been selected by Wray’s official retirement that Senior Assistant Chief Randy Gaber will step into the leadership role with the help of the other Assistant Chief.