County Mayor Carlos Gimenez has chosen six finalists to become the next director of the Miami-Dade Police Department.

Gimenez and his top deputies plan to interview the finalists next week and make a decision soon thereafter. The department has been without a permanent leader since former Director James Loftus retired early last August. All of the finalists come from within the department.

The finalists are: Maj. Andrianne Byrd, who oversees the economic crimes bureau; Division Chief Randy Heller, who is in charge of north operations; Maj. Delma Noel-Pratt, who heads the Kendall district; Assistant Director J.D. Patterson, who has temporarily been at the helm of the department; Division Chief Juan J. Perez, who is in charge of south operations; and Maj. Alfredo Ramirez, who leads the homicide bureau.

Gimenez culled the finalists after one-on-one meetings he held after Loftus’s retirement with the nearly 30 members of the department’s command staff.

A previous version of this report misspelled Maj. Andrianne Byrd’s name.