Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said Wednesday that she wants to select the city’s next police chief by the end of this month but declined to name the final candidates who were sent to her office two weeks ago.
Bass said he has not interviewed any of the finalists sent by the Police Commission, a five-member civilian body that oversees the Los Angeles Police Department.
The names were quietly sent to Bass on Aug. 21, the same day the commission completed its final interviews with several finalists behind closed doors. Commissioners have declined to reveal the identities of the front-runners — reflecting the secrecy that has shrouded much Search ProcessThe circle of people briefed on the final list of candidates appears to be fairly narrow, with even senior LAPD officials and long-serving consultants kept in the dark.
Now the finalists will compete to replace former Chief Michel Moore, who retired unexpectedly in February after 5½ years on the job. The months-long search for his successor has created an anxious atmosphere at the nation’s third-largest police force.
Speaking to the Times on Wednesday, Bass said he hadn’t spoken to any of the candidates yet, “so I don’t know how they feel about being publicly identified.”
“Right now, I’m not planning on that, but I do plan on making a decision in the month of September,” Bass said. “I think it’s a question of whether those individuals would like their names released, I think I have to be sensitive about that.”
Asked if she would elaborate on whether the finalists were insiders, outsiders or a mix of both, Bass answered simply: “No.”
Bass followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, Eric Garcetti, who set a precedent by withholding the names of finalists during the 2018 search for a new chief.
Bass did, however, lay out some of his priorities for the next chief, including: boosting officer morale, which has been “extremely low”; expanding the department’s much-touted Community Safety Partnership program; and reforming the discipline system, which has been criticized by officers for giving preferential treatment to senior officers.
“I’m looking for a leader who can make a significant difference within the department,” he said. “I think the morale issue is really important; my concern, of course, is law enforcement’s interaction with communities and it’s very difficult to have positive interactions if morale is really low.”
Under the city charter, the commission is required to select three final names for Bass’ consideration. But if the mayor is not satisfied with these choices, she can ask the commissioners to send additional names or continue the search independently. Whoever she chooses will need to be confirmed by the full City Council.
The head of the LAPD is considered one of the most challenging positions in law enforcement. The department is a massive, multi-billion dollar organization with over 10,000 employees who are closely monitored.
Whoever gets the position will need to have a good understanding of its operating procedures and how the LAPD has evolved over its long history, insiders said., That person will also be asked to balance demands that are often contradictory: Even though violent crime numbers, with the exception of robberies, have begun to stabilize, anxiety about public safety is still high among many Angelenos. The number of police shootings has also increased, raising the commission’s concerns. And any new leader, especially one from the outside, will be expected to study and hit the ground running quickly.
The new chief will also have to understand and respond to the sometimes competing interests of the police union, politicians and community groups. He will also be expected to address staffing problems, at a time when the huge security challenges of the World Cup and Olympic Games loom.
A survey of Los Angeles residents conducted by Loyola Marymount University found that people are more satisfied with the LAPD’s overall performance than in recent years, even though large segments of the Black and Latino populations see inequities in the department’s policing practices.
Selecting the city’s next police chief is one of the most closely watched decisions any mayor makes.
Bass and the commissioners have undertaken an extensive outreach process in recent months to hear from officers, the community, crime victims, community interventionists, religious leaders, neighborhood leaders, business leaders about what they would like to see in the next chief. She said she hopes to release the feedback she has received during the listening tour later this week.
She said she was surprised by the general feedback she received from rank-and-file officers, who, in contrast to other recent chief searches, seemed to openly favor an outsider chief.
“I was expecting officers to be very deeply involved on the inside as a candidate, but that’s not what happened,” she said. “I would say the biggest concern from the officers’ perspective is morale, and I thought that would be because of the community’s perception of law enforcement — that’s true, but more importantly, morale was low because of the internal workings of the LAPD.”
During the community forums, many attendees emphasized that Selecting an insider who is familiar with policing in a city as large and diverse as L.A.
Bass said it’s important that the next chief address one of officers’ main complaints: They believe the department’s much-maligned disciplinary system has created a double standard for high-ranking officers.
“People believed that first of all, the relationship between the command and the rank-and-file is not good, and secondly, it creates disciplinary problems,” he said.
Earlier this year, Bass vetoed a ballot proposal that would have, among other things, allowed the police chief to directly fire officers for certain misconduct. Under the current system, a chief can only recommend the dismissal of an officer, who is then entitled to a military-style tribunal known as a Board of Rights.
He said the RAND Corporation, a global policy think tank, has been brought in to conduct a top-level review of department management. Another consulting firm is conducting its own survey of department personnel, while the police union plans to release results of its own survey.
The commission said there were at least 25 applicants for the job but did not give the exact figure.
one of the external authorities got a second interviewAccording to sources, these include Jim McDonnell, who was once an assistant chief of the LAPD and a former Los Angeles County sheriff; Art Acevedo, a former chief in Houston and Miami; and Robert Arcos, who is a former assistant chief of the LAPD and works for the LA County District Attorney’s Office.
These entries, confirmed by multiple sources, add another dynamic to a wide-open race for the city’s next top cop.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, a powerful bargaining body for the city’s rank-and-file officers, has not publicly endorsed any candidate.
