The city of Toccoa continues to move forward on its search for a police chief.
Toccoa City Manager Mike Jackson says that the city received about 45 applicants for the position.
Jackson says the city is working to narrow it down to about seven applicants. He says those seven or so applicants will then be submitted to the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police Assessment Center.
In August, the city commission approved a motion to spend $9,500 to hire that assessment center to help the city assess top candidates for the position.
A panel put together by the Assessment Center consisting of law-enforcement officials and police chiefs would then assess the candidates in a number of areas to score and rank those candidates.
Jackson said from that assessment, the city would then move forward and talk more with the top two or three candidates that emerge from that process.
Jackson also says that current Interim Chief Tim Jarrell will be one of the seven or so candidates turned over to the assessment center.
Jarrell has served as the Interim Chief since the retirement of former Toccoa Police Chief Jackie Whitmire on August 31.
Jackson says a decision on a new chief will likely come in the first part of next year.