City officials Wednesday began interviewing the 13 semi-finalists to replace outgoing police Chief William Bratton, a group that is mostly coming from within the Los Angeles Police Department's top insider ranks.

The closed-door interviews by the civilian Police Commission will continue today at the tony City Club on Bunker Hill.

Commission President John Mack refused to identify the candidates or to confirm the names suggested by news reports and bloggers, but many departmental candidates could be identified as they filed in to the interview room.

Mack said 11 of the 13 candidates are internal LAPD command staff members, with the other two hailing from outside the department.

"It's important to know what their vision would be if he or she is the next police chief," Mack said. "The next police chief will have to go about building upon the great foundation that Chief Bratton built in the last seven years."

Among the first candidates to appear for the interview was Kirk J. Albanese, who was promoted in March as deputy chief of operations for the South Bureau.

Albanese formerly was captain at the Mission Area station, which opened in 2005 and serves Sylmar, Mission Hills, North Hills, Panorama City and a portion of Granada Hills.

Assistant chief Earl Paysinger, director and commanding officer of the office of operations also was interviewed later in the day, followed by Assistant Chief Sharon Papa, the first woman to be promoted to that position in LAPD history.

"I'm not sure I brought much to the interview about myself that they didn't already know," Paysinger said. "If nothing else, I convinced them of my passion. I proved to them that I have the passion to be the next chief."

Paysinger agreed with several candidates who said that succeeding Bratton would be a challenge in itself.

"He has set the bar high," Paysinger said. "Setting the bar high is not a bad thing. Setting the bar high is a phenomenal opportunity for any of us to reach and exceed what (Bratton) has already done."

Other candidates were deputy chiefs Sandy Jo MacArthur, commander of the Incident Management and Training Bureau, Richard A. Roupoli, commanding officer for the Special Operations Bureau, Deputy Chief Terry S. Hara, commanding officer of operations West Bureau, and Mark Perez, commander of the Professional Standards Bureau.

"What interviews like these do is create a way of getting into your thinking," Perez said. "And the commission has asked the kinds of questions that shows them how your mind thinks."

"The next chief has to be in a position to lead the department well into the 21st century," Perez said.

Sergio G. Diaz, who oversees the LAPD's Central Bureau also was interviewed.

"The next chief will be faced with higher expectations because of the success under Chief Bratton," Diaz said. "We have all come to have higher expectations both in the department and outside among the public."

"I think that the last seven years of accountability have been good for all of us," Diaz said as he left his interview. "It feels good to be responsible and accountable."

The city's Personnel Department chose the 13 for the Police Commission interview out of 24 applicants.

Under the city charter, the commission must recommend three candidates to the mayor.

The commission will try to pick their three by Nov. 16. That will be more than two weeks after Bratton departs to take a new job in New York City, but an interim chief is not expected to be named.

"We wouldn't need it because we have a strong command staff," Mack has said previously. "We don't expect the place to fall apart in two weeks."

Bratton has suggested that a member of his command staff be named his successor, saying "now is the time for an insider," though he has not publicly endorsed anyone.

Mack said that the ongoing interviews for the next chief are more crucial than ever in the history of the department because Bratton's successor will face unprecedented challenges.

"Bratton had not only a period of great leadership, but enjoyed good financial times," he said. "The new chief is going to have to face some tough decisions and make some difficult decisions because the LAPD is not going to be spared from the serious budgetary deficit this city is facing."

Mack said that in the interviews the commission has tried to get into the mindset of the candidates to see how they would meet this challenge.

"I think we also want to get a sense of the best possible knowledge and best feel for how this person would function as a leader of the LAPD ... what his or her vision is going to be," Mack said.

Bratton, 62, is going to work for the Falls Church, Va.-based global security firm Altegrity, which specializes in bringing "professional, modern criminal justice systems" to post-conflict nations like Afghanistan and Iraq.

His nearly seven-year tenure in the LAPD has been praised for driving crime rates to historic lows. Among other achievements, he increased the department's ranks to 10,000 police officers and helped it achieve compliance with the consent decree imposed after the 1998 Rampart scandal.