L.A. mayor selects longtime lawman Jim McDonnell as city's next police chief

Jim McDonnell and Mayor Karen Bass arrive at a news conference

, Richard Winton, David Zahniser and Dakota Smith

Oct. 4, 2024 Updated 4:03 PM PT

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass selected Jim McDonnell to serve as the city’s next police chief Friday, ending a months-long search process and ushering in a new era for one of the country’s largest police departments.

In picking the longtime lawman — who helped implement a federal consent decree as an LAPD assistant chief and later was elected Los Angeles County sheriff — Bass is getting a seasoned leader to help stabilize the department as it faces staffing shortages, low morale and the upcoming security challenges of the World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics.

However, the appointment of McDonnell, who is white, came as a surprise — and a disappointment to some — who hoped Bass would appoint the city’s first Latino or woman to serve as chief.

Bass, while introducing McDonnell at a news conference Friday, said her top priority is to make sure that “our neighborhoods are safer today than yesterday.”

“I spent years treating patients at Los Angeles County emergency rooms,” said Bass, a former physician assistant. “I saw the consequences of crime up close. I saw the devastation that gunshot wounds, knives and fists did to people’s bodies, and I saw the impact on the families left to pick up the pieces.”

McDonnell was with the LAPD for 28 years, sometimes serving as the department’s public face while an assistant chief under Chief William J. “Bill” Bratton. After an unsuccessful bid for a second term as sheriff, McDonnell took a job with USC. Although he was widely viewed as a potential successor to former LAPD Chief Michel Moore, who stepped down earlier this year, McDonnell has kept a lower public profile than other candidates who openly lobbied for the job.

The other finalists also had 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 L.A. County district attorney’s office.

McDonnell, director of the Safe Communities Institute at the USC Price School of Public Policy, was one of the three finalists chosen by the civilian Police Commission from a field of more than 25 applicants.

At Friday morning’s news conference, McDonnell noted that he began his career at the LAPD academy 43 years ago.

“I love this city — and I understand the modern-day challenges our officers face in working to protect it,” McDonnell said in a statement. “It is a tremendous honor to lead the men and women of the LAPD. I will work hard to make sure their work to keep Angelenos safe is supported.”

McDonnell still requires confirmation by the City Council, which is widely expected.

Bass had made clear she wants the next police chief to focus on improving officer morale while also removing bureaucratic obstacles to recruitment at the LAPD. Explaining her choice of McDonnell, the mayor cited the chief’s role in preparing for the 2028 Olympics and 2026 World Cup.

“After visiting France and seeing the games, the magnitude of what L.A. needs to prepare for is crystal clear to me, and I trust that Jim McDonnell will make sure that we are prepared and vigilant for anything that comes our way,” Bass said.

A report released by Bass last month focused on complaints from the rank-and-file about the department’s disciplinary process, its complaint system, high stress, “inadequate” staffing and the level of support provided after “critical incidents,” such as shootings by officers.

During his tenure with the LAPD, McDonnell made a mark by working with the city’s diverse communities and political leaders to restore confidence in the department after the Rampart corruption scandal of the late 1990s and early 2000s, when officers planted evidence and committed robberies and murders.

In 2002, during his first run for the chief’s job, McDonnell won praise for presenting a blueprint for a more grassroots style of policing that sought to strike a balance between crime-fighting and community relations; the strategy was later adopted by Bratton and served as the foundation for overhauling the organization.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents about 8,800 officers, voiced support for the mayor’s pick, saying it shows that Bass is committed to improving police staffing, boosting officer morale and fixing a “broken discipline process.”

“We have every confidence in Chief McDonnell’s ability to hit the ground running to improve public safety in Los Angeles and to appoint an upper command staff that will do away with the status quo and turn a new page for the LAPD,” said the union, which hadn’t publicly endorsed any of the candidates.

As chief, McDonnell faces the difficult task of continuing some of his predecessor’s reforms around de-escalation and pretextual traffic stops while addressing more entrenched problems. The department is hundreds of officers below the number it had even two years ago, and recruitment efforts have so far failed to pay off.

Although serious crime appears to have dipped slightly from last year, a recent string of high-profile incidents has fueled public anxiety over crime — including the alleged hijacking of a city bus that led to the slaying of one man.

Police shootings have similarly leveled off, but the department continues to face criticism that it isn’t doing enough to curtail officer uses of force.

McDonnell on Friday repeatedly spoke of the need for more officers to combat crime. He also said he wants to “make the department a model for the nation” and described himself as being fired up for the challenge after years away from leading a law enforcement agency.

“I see an opportunity now to emerge from that period and to be able to move forward, and I feel like I still have gas in the tank, fire in the belly, if you will, and a desire to be able to try and be helpful,” he said.

After the news conference at City Hall, an oversized black SUV whisked the mayor and McDonnell to a roll call at the Northeast police station, where the pair addressed a roomful of officers. McDonnell was greeted with a standing ovation, Bass later told reporters. They later stopped for a photo op at Pink’s Hot Dogs, a Hollywood institution.

They chatted briefly with the eatery‘s diminutive co-owner, Beverly Pink Wolfe, before going inside to order food.

McDonnell told reporters at the restaurant that his views on policing had evolved.

“Now my perspective is much broader and wider, realizing that we are not going to be successful unless we work very closely with the community,” he said.

They left after about half an hour, bound for another roll call at Hollenbeck Division.

As news of the appointment spread, statements of congratulations began flooding in from law enforcement circles.

L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said McDonnell “brings a wealth of policing experience, a strong sense of integrity, and fresh innovative strategies to the role.”

A number of former LAPD stalwarts described McDonnell as a gracious, well-liked leader.

Former Chief Charlie Beck said McDonnell “brings a depth of experience and knowledge which is absolutely unmatched,” while former Assistant Chief Horace Frank praised his “intellectual caliber.”

Even though he’s been away from the department for more than a decade, McDonnell brings a “wide breadth of experience” to the job, said Sandy Jo MacArthur, a retired LAPD assistant chief who like McDonnell went into academia after leaving law enforcement.

The fact that he has already led one of the country’s largest law enforcement agencies, the Sheriff’s Department, bodes well for his ability to step into his new position and be effective from Day 1, she said.

The son of working-class immigrants from Ireland, McDonnell grew up in Boston before relocating to Southern California more than four decades ago.

During his senior year of college, he landed an internship with the Boston Police Department, where he hoped to get hired after graduation. But police jobs were in short supply when state funding was drastically curtailed and McDonnell moved west.

He joined the LAPD in 1981 at the age of 21 and worked his way up the ranks, holding a variety of assignments in patrol, detective, vice, gang, organized crime, homicide and other divisions.

Twice before he applied for the LAPD chief’s job, losing out to Bratton in 2002 and Beck in 2009.

After losing out a second time, he left the following year to become the top cop in Long Beach. While there, McDonnell led a force that, while far smaller than the LAPD, faced the same concerns about staffing shortages. He has been criticized for a rise in officer-involved shootings, as well as the 2013 beating of an unarmed man.

In 2014, he was elected Los Angeles County sheriff, soon after longtime Sheriff Lee Baca retired under a cloud of scandals that included the federal indictment of sheriff’s officials for allegations ranging from assaulting jail inmates to hiding a jailhouse informant 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 own nephew.

As sheriff, McDonnell was dogged by questions of whether he did enough to address the problems that surfaced during the Baca administration.

He served one term before being replaced by Alex Villanueva in a stunning electoral upset for a seat that hadn’t seen an incumbent lose in more than a century.

He eventually landed at USC, where he was named director of the Safe Communities Institute — a position previously held by Erroll Southers, president of the Police Commission, which picked the three finalists.

At a USC forum last year about crime on the Metro system, McDonnell talked about the need for a multifaceted crime response, which started with hiring more police officers and pushing for stronger penalties, while connecting those seeking help with services. McDonnell made no mention of embracing alternatives to traditional policing in his remarks Friday.

Although second-guessing of the decision to appoint McDonnell was muted compared with past searches, some critics said the department’s top leader should better reflect the city’s population, which is about 50% Latino.

Nilza Serrano, who chairs the nonprofit Latino Equity and Diversity Initiative and backed Arcos for the job, said Friday she is “deeply disappointed” with Bass’ decision.

“This decision is a setback for both representation and progress in our city, and I don’t know what Latinos have to do to catch a break in this town,” she said.

Bass responded by saying she will “continue to pay attention to representation, particularly with the Latino population.”

In a statement, Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles called McDonnell “by far the most problematic” of the mayor’s three chief finalists. The group called his selection “an absolute betrayal of the people and a stark contradiction to the progressive values Mayor Karen Bass claims to uphold,” citing his failure to address deputy gangs or improve conditions at the Men’s Central Jail while serving as sheriff.

Bass said she was surprised by the feedback she received from rank-and-file officers, who — unlike other recent chief searches — seemed to openly favor an outside chief.

Last month, Bass released a report detailing the results of a months-long survey about what civil rights groups, neighborhood council members, LAPD officers and others want in their next chief. Bass said it was crucial that the next chief address one of officers’ main gripes: the view that the department’s much-maligned disciplinary system has created a double standard for high-ranking officers.

McDonnell, who frequently clashed with the sheriff’s deputy union over his disciplinary decisions, said that he intended to work with the Police Protective League but remained committed to accountability.

Longtime policing expert Chuck Wexler, of the think tank Police Executive Research Forum, said that McDonnell brings insider knowledge but also the “perspective” of someone who had left and tried to reform other agencies.

“He will hit the ground running. There will be no owner’s manual for Jim McDonnell,” he said.

Miriam Krinsky, a former federal prosecutor and a former executive director of the county’s Citizens’ Commission on Jail Violence, described McDonnell as a “true public servant,” someone who has perspectives on law enforcement both as an insider and an outsider.

“He’s someone with an unwavering moral compass and tremendous integrity,” said Krinsky, who served as a special advisor to McDonnell during part of his time as sheriff. “In my mind, every law enforcement agency, whether a police department or a sheriff’s department, has to start with that.”

Councilmember Traci Park, who chairs the committee overseeing Olympic planning, said she was “thrilled” to welcome McDonnell as chief.

“He has the perfect combination of inside-outside experience, grassroots leadership, and community-based focus to seamlessly take the helm during a time of unprecedented crisis in our city,” said Park, who represents Venice and other neighborhoods on L.A.’s Westside. “I trust he will immediately begin restoring the ranks, improving morale, and addressing the crime epidemic plaguing Los Angeles.”

Times staff writers Keri Blakinger and Cindy Chang contributed to this report.