As the city considers hiring a successor to departing Police Chief William Bratton, the consensus at a public meeting Thursday night was the ideal candidate would follow Bratton's examples and would come from within the department.

The comments by San Fernando Valley residents came at the fourth of five community meetings held by the Police Commission to solicit public input on the next chief.

"My first recommendation would be to see if we could clone our current chief," said Cary Iaccino of the Reseda Neighborhood Council. "I believe we should look for somebody within first, but being such a great city that we are ... I think we can get pretty much the best of the best."

At least 11 of the department's 12 deputy and assistant chiefs have reportedly applied for the position, and Thursday's meeting also focused on who might be the best of that group.

The heavy favorite among many of those at the meeting was Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell, currently Bratton's second in command.

Reseda resident Ann Kinzle, a longtime LAPD civilian volunteer and community leader, said McDonnell has often run the department behind the scenes, particularly with Bratton having a history of traveling outside of Los Angeles.

"Bill Bratton did a lot of work to turn this department around," Kinzle said. "We need someone who is cognizant of what is going on and cares about the community, not an outsider coming in."

But Commission President John W. Mack told the four dozen residents who attended the meeting that the LAPD chief's job is one of the top law enforcement positions in the country and the commission will search nationwide as well as consider internal candidates.

"This will be the most important decision we will be a part of as a commission," Mack said.

As of Sept. 4, Mack said, more than 1,600 people had responded to that survey.

Bratton is leaving Oct. 31 to head a new security firm that will provide consulting services to police departments around the world.

The city has also posted an online survey at www.lacity.org/per for public feedback.