MIAMI — Mayor Tomas Regalado and City Manager Pete Hernandez on Thursday named veteran Miami police Maj. Miguel Exposito to replace the outgoing John Timoney as the city's new police chief.

Exposito, 55, was among four candidates considered for the city's top law enforcement job. The others: Assistant Chief Adam L. Burden, Assistant Chief Thomas W. Cannon and Maj. Manuel Orosa.

Regalado, who has known Exposito at least a decade, favored him over the other candidates.

Under the city charter, the city manager has the authority to hire and fire the police chief, but the decision really rests with the mayor. And Regalado made it clear that hiring a new chief was among the top priorities of his new administration.

The new top cop means Regalado made good on one of the first promises of his campaign — a change in leadership on the Miami force — which he said suffered from morale problems under Timoney.

In Thursday's announcement on the steps of City Hall, Exposito — whom city officials called "Mike" —made it a point to talk about morale. "Foremost in my mind is bringing up the morale of the department," he said.

He said he also planned to "go back to basics" by putting more than two dozen police officers on the street and wanted to move the department's investigative unit back to local districts. The unit investigates crimes that include robberies and burglaries.

"We need to bring police back onto the streets," he said.

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