Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass today participated in the ceremonial swearing-in ceremony of Chief Jim McDonnell, who was confirmed last week.
This confirmation continues the Mayor’s work to reduce crime and make L.A. safer in every neighborhood.
“This is a day of celebration in Los Angeles. This is a new and exciting day for public safety in our city as we officially swear in Jim McDonnell as the 59th Chief of Police of the Los Angeles Police Department. I am very clear that my number one job as Mayor is to keep people safe and that the only way to improve safety in Los Angeles is to make change,” Mayor Bass said.
Chief McDonnell said that his goals are to:
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Enhance public safety;
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Grow LAPD back to full strength through recruitment and retention;
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Strengthen public trust;
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Further develop community relationships;
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Ensure respectful and constitutional policing practices; and
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Prepare LAPD and our partners for the challenges ahead.
“I want to be clear that the Chief is on the job for one week and has already hit the ground running – meeting with officers and members of the community and getting to work on growing and strengthening the LAPD, work on strengthening community relations and ensuring that our city is prepared for what is to come. That’s why Chief McDonnell was selected and why he was approved by the City Council because as probably the only person in our city’s history with experience in senior leadership of the top three law enforcement agencies in our region, I know we will be prepared for the World Cup, the Olympics and everything that is ahead of for us,” she added.
Who is Chief McDonnell?
He has served for more than forty years in the public safety profession and is the first person to serve in senior executive leadership positions in the three largest policing agencies in Los Angeles County: the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), and the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD). During his tenure, all three agencies saw a reduction in crime and improved police-community relations.
Beginning his career with the LAPD, McDonnell served there for twenty-nine years and held every rank up to First Assistant Chief of Police. He worked a wide variety of assignments, including homicide, gangs, organized crime, vice, and patrol operations. Early in his tenure at the LAPD, McDonnell played an integral role in developing the framework for community policing that would transform the LAPD into a thought leader in community policing strategies. McDonnell continued to build upon this framework throughout his career. He retired from the LAPD in 2010 to become the Chief of the Long Beach Police Department, where he served for almost five years.
In 2014, McDonnell was elected as the 32nd Sheriff of Los Angeles County to lead the largest sheriff’s department in the United States with more than 18,000 employees. McDonnell took over an agency that had been shaken by scandal and, in his four-year term, worked to restore public trust, institutionalize systems of accountability, and work collaboratively and effectively with federal, state and local agencies to combat human trafficking and terrorism, among other regional challenges.
McDonnell is a respected voice on local, state, and national criminal justice issues. He has served as Vice President of the Major County Sheriffs of America; President of the California Peace Officers’ Association; President of the Los Angeles County Police Chiefs’ Association; a board member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police; a board member of the Peace Officers’ Association of Los Angeles County; a member of the Major Cities Chiefs Association; and as a member of the California Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards & Training (POST).
After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice from St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, McDonnell obtained a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Southern California. He is also a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Executive Institute and has completed executive education programs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
