Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is expected to announce that she has chosen Jim McDonnell to be the city’s next police chief, ending a months-long search and ushering in a new era for one of the nation’s largest police departments.
In choosing the longtime attorney — who helped enforce federal consent decrees as LAPD assistant chief and was later elected Los Angeles County sheriff — Bass got a steady hand as the big security challenges of the World Cup and Olympics loom on the horizon. .
However, the appointment of McDonnell, who is white, came as a surprise – and a disappointment to some – who had hoped Bass would choose the city’s first Latino or woman to serve as chief.
Bass is set to formally announce McDonnell’s hiring at a press conference Friday morning at City Hall. Multiple sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly before the announcement, confirmed that he was the mayor’s choice.
McDonnell was with the LAPD for 28 years, sometimes serving as the public face of the department while serving as assistant chief under Chief William J. “Bill” Bratton. After a failed bid for a second term as sheriff, McDonnell took a job with USC. While he was considered a potential successor to former LAPD Chief Michel Moore, who resigned earlier this year, McDonnell has maintained a lower public profile than other candidates.
McDonnell, who heads the Safe Communities Institute at the USC Price School of Public Policy, is one of three finalists chosen by the civilian Police Commission from a field of more than 25 applicants to lead one of the nation’s largest police departments.
Other finalists also have strong LAPD ties: Deputy Chief Emada Tingirides, who runs the department’s South Bureau, and Robert “Bobby” Arcos, who left the department in 2018 and took a high-ranking position in the LA County District Attorney’s office.
Bass has made it clear he wants the next police chief to focus heavily on improving officer morale, while also removing barriers to recruitment within the LAPD.
A report Bass released last month focused heavily on complaints from the rank and file about the department’s disciplinary process, the grievance system, high stress, “inadequate” staffing and the level of support provided after “critical incidents,” such as shootings. by the officer.
“We will use this information not only to find the next police chief but also as a guide as we continue to move forward with reforms that make Los Angeles safer while supporting our officers,” Bass said last month.
During his tenure with the LAPD, McDonnell made his mark by working with the city’s diverse community and political leaders to restore trust in the department after the Rampart corruption scandals of the late 1990s and early 2000s, in which officers committing robberies and murders.
In 2002, when he first became chief, McDonnell won praise for providing the blueprint for a more grassroots style of policing that sought to strike a balance between policing and community relations; This strategy was later adopted by Bratton and became the foundation for an organizational overhaul.
As chief, he faces the difficult task of continuing some of his previous reforms on de-escalation and pretextual traffic stops while dealing with wider issues. The department is hundreds of officers below the number even two years ago, and recruitment efforts have so far failed to pay off.
Most categories of violence are now even or less than they were at this time last year, after the number of incidents since the beginning of the year. But a number of high-profile incidents, including the most recent alleged hijacking of a city bus that left one person dead, have created an ever-growing barrage of lawlessness on the nightly newscasts and on social media.
Police shootings are similar, but the department continues to be criticized for not doing enough to reduce officers’ use of force.
Colleagues at the LAPD describe McDonnell as a good and well-liked leader.
Although he’s been away from the department for more than a decade, McDonnell brings “a wealth of experience” to the job, according to Sandy Jo MacArthur, a retired LAPD assistant chief who like McDonnell entered academia after leaving law enforcement.
The fact that he has led one of the largest law enforcement agencies, the Sheriff’s Department, bodes well for his ability to step into a new position and be effective from Day 1, he said.
Now he’s the chief of the LAPD — a job he’s done twice.
The son of working-class immigrants from Ireland, McDonnell grew up in Boston before moving to Southern California more than four decades ago.
He attended school at Don Bosco in Boston, where he considered planning and architecture but realized that he could not sit at a desk for the rest of his life. So he left for St. Anselm College near Manchester, NH
During her senior year, she landed an internship with the Boston Police Department, and hopes to be hired after graduation. But then came a tax-cutting measure that cut Boston’s police force, so McDonnell moved west.
He joined the LAPD in 1981 at the age of 21 and rose through the ranks, holding various assignments in patrol, detective, deputy, gang, organized crime, homicide and other divisions.
For McDonnell, it was the proof he had been waiting for.
He previously applied for the LAPD chief job twice, losing to Bratton in 2002 and Charlie Beck in 2009.
In 2014, he was elected Los Angeles County sheriff, replacing Lee Baca, the long-retired sheriff in a cloud scandal that included federal indictments of sheriff’s officials for charges ranging from assaulting jail inmates to hiding jailhouse informants from the FBI. Under Baca’s watch, 18 employees were criminally charged and the department was found to have hired deputies with criminal histories, including Baca’s nephew.
A year before winning the election, McDonnell publicly considered running, but ultimately dropped out because his district election fundraising duties would take him away from his family and his duties in Long Beach. He entered the race following the surprise retirement of former sheriff Baca.
Some critics say McDonnell was an effective leader but did not do enough to address the problems that arose during the Baca administration.
In Long Beach, McDonnell leads a force that, though smaller than the LAPD, faces similar concerns about understaffing. He has been criticized for an increase in officer-involved shootings, as well as the 2013 beating of an unarmed man.
He served one term before being replaced by Alex Villanueva in a stunning election upset for a seat that has not lost to an incumbent in more than a century. He later joined the exodus of higher-ranking law enforcement officials who moved into academia.
At the USC forum last year on crime in the Metro system, McDonnell spoke about the need for a multi-faceted crime response, which starts with hiring more police officers and pushing for stronger punishment, while connecting those who ask for help with services.
A Loyola Marymount University survey of Los Angeles residents showed stronger satisfaction with the LAPD’s overall performance than in recent years, although some Black and Latino populations see gaps in the way the department polices them.
Finding the city’s next police chief is one of the mayor’s most closely watched decisions.
Bass said he’s been surprised by the general response he’s gotten from ranking officers, who unlike in other searches for a new chief, seem to like an outside leader.
“I hope the officials will be dug inwards, internal candidates and not like that,” he said. “I would say that the No. 1 concern from an officer’s standpoint is morale, and I think it’s going to be because of the public’s perception of law enforcement — that’s true, but more importantly is the low morale because of the internal workings of the LAPD.
During the community forum, many attendees pushed for an insider’s choice to fit into policing in a city as vast and diverse as L.A. Bass said it’s critical that the next chief address one of the chief complaints of officers: the department’s views. The much-maligned disciplinary system has created a double standard for high-ranking officers.
Last month, Bass released a report detailing the results of a month-long survey of what civil rights groups, neighborhood council members, LAPD officers and others wanted.
