After Los Angeles cops shot at folks on three consecutive days late final month, the LAPD’s civilian bosses turned to Chief Jim McDonnell for an evidence.
The Police Fee wished to know: What extra may the division be doing to maintain officers from opening hearth?
However in his response on the panel’s assembly final week, McDonnell appeared to bristle on the notion his officers have been too trigger-happy.
“I believe what we’re seeing is an uptick within the willingness of criminals throughout the neighborhood to assault officers head-on,” he mentioned on the Aug. 26 assembly. “After which officers reply with what they should do in an effort to management it.”
The fee has heaped reward on McDonnell for his efficiency since taking on the division in November. However the change over the latest cluster of police shootings — a part of an general improve that has seen officers open hearth in 31 incidents this 12 months, up from 20 on the identical level in 2024 — marked a uncommon level of competition.
Fee Vice President Rasha Gerges Shields advised the chief that she and her colleagues remained “troubled by the dealings of individuals each with edged weapons — knives, different issues like that — and in addition those that are within the midst of a psychological well being disaster.”
Throughout a radio look earlier this 12 months, the chief brushed apart questions on shootings, saying officers are sometimes put into harmful conditions the place they don’t have any alternative however to open hearth in an effort to shield themselves or the general public.
“That’s one thing that’s a part of the job sadly,” he mentioned. “It’s largely out of the management of the officer and the division so far as publicity to these sorts of threats.”
Such remarks have left some longtime observers anxious that the division is backsliding to the times when division leaders tolerated pervasive and extreme use of drive. McDonnell’s protection of aggressive techniques throughout this summer time’s pro-immigration protests, critics argue, sends a harmful message to the rank-and-file.
The LAPD sits at a “pivotal” crossroads, in accordance with Jorja Leap, a professor on the UCLA Luskin College of Public Affairs.
The federal consent decree that adopted the Rampart gang scandal of the late Nineteen Nineties pushed the LAPD into turning into a extra clear and accountable company, whose leaders accepted neighborhood buy-in as important to their mission, mentioned Leap.
Out of the reforms that adopted got here its signature outreach program, the Group Security Partnership, which eschews arrests in favor of bringing officers along with residents to unravel issues at a few of the metropolis’s most troubled housing tasks.
Leap mentioned assist for this system has lately began to wane, regardless of analysis exhibiting the strategy has helped drive down crime. “The LAPD has now advanced into an inward-facing group,” she mentioned.
McDonnell was not accessible for an interview this week, an LAPD spokeswoman mentioned.
Others faulted the chief for his response to the Trump administration’s immigration raids in Southern California, taking concern with the native police presence at federal operations and the aggressive actions of LAPD officers towards protesters and journalists throughout demonstrations in June.
Fernando Guerra, a political science professor at Loyola Marymount College, mentioned McDonnell appears unwilling to acknowledge how the sight of riot-gear-clad officers holding off protesters created the impression that police have been “defending the feds and the buildings greater than the residents of L.A. who pay for LAPD.”
McDonnell has repeatedly defended his division’s response, telling reporters earlier this 12 months that officers have been pressured to step in to quell “direct response to rapid, credible threats.”
He additionally issued an inner memo voicing his assist to officers within the Latino-majority division and acknowledging the combined emotions that some could have in regards to the immigration raids.
After his public swearing-in in November, McDonnell acknowledged how a lot had modified with the division since he left in 2010, whereas saying that “my perspective is far broader and wider, realizing that we’re not going to achieve success except we work very carefully with the neighborhood.”
On the time, his appointment was seen with shock in native political circles, the place some questioned why a progressive mayor with a neighborhood organizing background like Karen Bass would hitch her fortunes to a law-and-order chief. Others argued that McDonnell was an interesting alternative: A revered LAPD veteran who additionally served because the chief in Lengthy Seaside and later as Los Angeles County sheriff.
After quite a few scandals lately, McDonnell’s choice for the job was extensively seen as providing stability whereas the town ready for the large safety challenges of the upcoming World Cup and Olympic Video games.
With an earnest, restrained method, McDonnell has gained over some contained in the division who have been delay by his predecessor Michel Moore’s micromanaging management type. After his much-publicized union battles throughout his tenure as sheriff, McDonnell has courted the highly effective Los Angeles Police Protecting League by placing new give attention to police hiring and promising to overtake the division’s controversial disciplinary system.
By some measures, McDonnell has additionally delivered outcomes for Bass. Violent crime numbers proceed to drop, with homicides on tempo for 50-year lows.
However the two leaders have taken starkly completely different positions on the White Home’s indiscriminate raids and deployment of Nationwide Guard troops.
McDonnell took warmth throughout a Metropolis Council listening to in June when he described federal legislation enforcement officers taking part in immigration operations as “our companions.”
Andrés Dae Keun Kwon, coverage counsel and senior organizer for the American Civil Liberties Union, mentioned that McDonnell’s document on immigration was one of many causes the ACLU opposed his choice as chief. Since then, Kwon mentioned, the chief appears out of contact with the message of Bass and different native leaders rallying across the metropolis’s immigrants.
“Provided that we’re three months into this Trump regime siege of Los Angeles you’d suppose that the chief of this police division” could be extra attentive to the neighborhood’s wants, Kwon mentioned.
In a press release, Clara Karger, a spokeswoman for Bass, mentioned that “every chief has a special position to play in defending Angelenos and all agree that these indiscriminate raids are having devastating penalties for our metropolis,” she mentioned.
McDonnell’s relationship with the Police Fee has been cordial, however a number of division insiders — who requested anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to reveal personal discussions — mentioned that behind the scenes some commissioners have began to second-guess the chief’s dealing with of disciplinary circumstances.
The tensions have been evident on the latest assembly when the difficulty of officer shootings led to a public dressing-down of the chief.
Echoing the frustrations of LAPD critics who flood the fee’s conferences on a weekly foundation, board members questioned the way it was potential that officers wanted to fireplace their weapons on back-to-back-to-back days final month.
Commissioner Fabian Garcia known as the three shootings “so much.”
He and his colleagues advised McDonnell they anticipated the LAPD to current a report on the shootings at a future assembly.
McDonnell responded, “Nice, thanks,” earlier than launching into his common crime and staffing updates.
