Former Los Angeles county sheriff Jim McDonnell will lead the Los Angeles police division (LAPD), taking cost of the drive of almost 9,000 officers as discontent grows among the many metropolis’s residents over public security whilst violent crime numbers drop, the mayor introduced on Friday.
Mayor Karen Bass, who had the ultimate say after a civilian board of Los Angeles police commissioners vetted McDonnell, mentioned her collection of a veteran regulation enforcement officer was based mostly on a necessity to scale back crime and make each neighborhood safer. Bass met with lots of of LAPD officers and neighborhood leaders earlier than making her choice.
The decide ended debate over whether or not Bass would select an “insider” or “outsider” who would shake issues up and problem the best way issues have been accomplished inside the division’s insular tradition.
“From the start, I’ve been clear: my high precedence as mayor is to make sure that Angelenos and our neighborhoods are safer in the present day than yesterday,” Bass mentioned. “Chief McDonnell is a pacesetter, an innovator and a change maker, and I’m trying ahead to working with him to develop and strengthen LAPD.”
The incoming chief must be sure that the division is prepared for the extra safety challenges of the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics.
McDonnell was elected LA county sheriff in 2014 to supervise the most important sheriff’s division within the US. Earlier than that, he spent 29 years within the LAPD and served as Lengthy Seashore’s police chief for nearly 5 years.
McDonnell vowed to boost public security, develop again the drive that has shrunk through the years and “guarantee respectful and constitutional policing practices”.
The appointment follows the shock retirement of chief Michel Moore in early 2024. Moore’s tenure was marked by higher scrutiny into extreme drive and police killings of civilians within the nation’s second-largest metropolis. Dominic Choi has led the division as interim chief – and the primary Asian American chief – since March 2024. Bass thanked Choi for his work and mentioned he’ll proceed to function assistant chief below McDonnell.
The opposite two candidates despatched to Bass, who made the ultimate choice, have been deputy chief Emada Tingirides and former assistant chief Robert “Bobby” Arcos, each reported by the Los Angeles Occasions as finalists for the place.
The LAPD has confronted criticism by way of the years over its response to the George Floyd protests and a number of other high-profile shootings by officers. It has struggled to do away with dangerous cops whereas additionally struggling to recruit as extra officers depart its ranks than are coming in.
John Sullivan, who retired as a lieutenant in 2018 after 30 years on the county sheriff’s division, referred to as McDonnell a “hybrid” within the insider-outsider debate.
“He grew up within the group, he is aware of the group … however he’s additionally been the chief of a separate division, and he’s additionally been sheriff,” Sullivan mentioned. McDonnell would deliver a “contemporary set of eyes” to the LAPD’s issues whereas understanding the considerations of the rank-and-file.
On the LAPD, McDonnell held each rank from police officer to second-in-command below the previous LAPD chief Invoice Bratton. Throughout that point, he helped implement a federal consent decree imposed on the division largely on account of the Rampart scandal, a corruption case involving rampant misconduct inside the anti-gang unit.
When he was elected county sheriff, he inherited a division within the wake of a jail abuse corruption scandal that led to convictions towards his predecessor, Lee Baca, and greater than 20 different officers. Members of a civilian watchdog fee applauded McDonnell for embracing federal mandates for jail reform, together with bettering de-escalation coaching and higher documentation of using drive that has led to improved jail circumstances, the Los Angeles Occasions reported.
In 2022, he joined the College of Southern California as director of the Protected Communities Institute, which conducts analysis on public security options.
McDonnell additionally served on an advisory committee to USC’s Middle for Threat and Financial Evaluation of Threats and Emergencies, a US homeland safety department-funded establishment to do analysis on counterterrorism, in keeping with Sullivan. His expertise with finding out worldwide safety threats may very well be an asset as police chief.
“We’ve actually giant public occasions which can be coming that would nicely be terrorist targets,” Sullivan mentioned, referring to the World Cup and Olympics. “The conflict in Gaza, the brewing conflict in south Lebanon, all that’s going to have echoes or ripples right here in Los Angeles.”
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