(FinalCall.com) -- As unexpected as it was, the Los Angeles Police Commission made the best of decisions in choosing three finalists for the vacant police chief position. In a final pool stacked with LAPD insiders, most of whom are "culturalists" and not "reformers," the Commission decided not to bring a single insider into the final three choices that would be forwarded to Mayor Hahn.

Hahn, who now has the opportunity to put his "stamp" on the department in making the final choice, was spared the pressure politics of his number one contributor—the police union. The biggest fear from the outset of this highly manipulated selection was that the police union would be picking the next police chief, not the mayor. Many subscribe that the union fired the last chief, and that the mayor just went along for the ride, and the police commission was "the patsy."

The choice does a lot to clean up the police commission’s image as a rubber stamp board for the union (though it still might be for the Mayor). The commission has now put the focus on the desire to "break-up" the "blue culture" that is the source of continuing corruption scandals, and what better way than to take another stab at going outside the culture to bring in fresh policing perspectives. Bold move in a department that tends to have its way with "outsiders."

Of the three finalists, former New York Commissioner William Bratton, former Philadelphia Commissioner John Timoney, and current Oxnard, Calif., Chief Art Lopez, only Bratton has had success in reforming deep-seated corruption, abuse and "morale" problems in a large department.

The New York Police Department was having its own scandals in the late 1980s and early 1990s with abuse and misconduct of officers when Bratton took over. New York went from being the nation’s most unsafe city to one of the nation’s safest. Bratton’s "big city" experience doesn’t necessarily make him the insider. Most think that the "inside" track goes to Oxnard Police Chief Lopez, who has a lot of "trendy pluses" going for him.

He and Hahn go way back. Hahn (like most people) tends to be more comfortable with people he knows. That’s a plus. Lopez comes out of LAPD, where he spent most of his career, so he knows "the culture" of the department. He’s known the discrimination of the department and he’s also been out of the department long enough to know the difference between LAPD policing and other forms of policing. That’s a plus.

But Lopez’s biggest plus is that he is a Latino. City Hall insiders have been saying that the next Police Chief would be a Latino. After all, it is "their turn," if you listen to the race sensitive tone of L.A.’s "parity politics."

In the meantime, the department knows it’s headed for the reform agenda once and for all. While many wanted popular former chief Bernard Parks to stay, they knew he wasn’t a reformer. His issue was, had he done the job according to the performance criteria (and he had). Fair is fair. But, he was forced to reform by the Consent Decree, which he complied with. It’s a difference in being a "reformer" and being "forced to reform." The last outsider to head the department, former Philadelphia Chief Willie Williams, was a reformer, but he didn’t have a clue about the culture and the inside practices of abuse and misconduct that the culture covered up. He ended up being eaten up by the culture before it could be reformed.

We know at least two of the three top choices have dealt with corrupt cultures and reform initiatives. Those are the two most likely to become the next chief of police of the City of Los Angeles and will head a reform-minded department in need of reform. Whether the "rank and file" will come along for the reform ride is yet to be seen.

The only thing we now have to worry about is the constant case of "morale-i-tis" LAPD tends to come up with whenever the union doesn’t get its way. And while it might be mild in the beginning, trust me, it will surface sometime over the next five years. One thing term limits on the police chief has done is made the position "campaignable." This is one campaign that appears to be resolved, in favor of reform, thanks to the police commission thinking "outside the box"—the LAPD box.

Congratulations on making such a move.

(Mr. Samad is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer.)