NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb, the first woman to lead the force, will finish on September 30 after a three-year stint in charge of 20,000 employees.
Praised by many, including Premier Chris Minns as standing "tall in moments of crisis", she also faced many detractors.
Ms Webb had planned to announce her departure on May 18, commemorating the date she walked into the Goulburn Police Academy 38 years ago.
But continuing the trend of a turbulent tenure, a media leak forced her and the government to respond early.
Deputy Commissioner Peter Thurtell will be an interim appointment during the recruitment process.
Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said the transition to a new leader should take place expeditiously.
"You don't want a lame duck acting commissioner there for a significant amount of time," he told reporters on Thursday.
Several other assistant and deputy commissioners are being touted as potential successors, including frontrunner Mal Lanyon, who currently leads the state's Reconstruction Authority.
Mr Lanyon declined to comment when contacted via the authority on Thursday.
Assistant Commissioner Gavin Wood and Deputy Commissioner David Hudson are among other names floated.
The role may also be filled by someone outside the force.
Victoria recently recruited New Zealand's former commissioner Mike Bush to lead the southern state's police.
Former NSW Police detective Michael Kennedy said there were plenty of capable and ambitious leaders within the force's ranks.
But the Western Sydney University professor believes the force needs to address deep-rooted problems such as recruitment and retention.
"The place has ended up being like a mafia institution," Dr Kennedy, who once worked with Ms Webb, told AAP.
"The modern police (force) has changed for the worse. They can't recruit, they can't retain, and that's a problem she began fixing up that were put in place by her predecessor."
Whoever ends up at the helm should take a page out of Ms Webb's book and focus on teamwork and collaboration, Dr Kennedy said.
"I'd like to see another woman replace Karen Webb. There's half a dozen of them who would do the job standing on their head."
Opposition police spokesman Paul Toole took a parting shot at Ms Webb, saying the next commissioner needed to be "someone who can also stand up in front of the media".
"Their job is to portray to the public and to the police force that there is confidence in the work that police are doing in the state," he said.
"I hope we see a lot of really good applicants ... I'm hopeful we get a broad range of people applying for the role."
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