The new chief of the Los Angeles Police Department will be sworn in Thursday morning at a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the city and community.
Jim McDonnell received confirmation that he would fill the department’s top seat The Los Angeles City Council on November 8after Mayor Karen Bass appointed him as the 59th LAPD chief in October. The selection came eight months after former Police Chief Michel Moore retired.
Interim Police Chief Dominic Choi has led the department since March and is expected to resign and become one of three assistant chiefs under the new chief.
McDonnell is the first person to hold senior leadership positions at three of the largest police agencies in Los Angeles County: the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Long Beach Police Department.
He served in the LAPD for 29 years and held several ranks before becoming assistant chief of police. He retired from the department to serve as chief of the Long Beach Police Department from 2010 to 2014, after which he was elected president of the police department. Sheriff of Los Angeles County from 2014 to 2018,
According to the LAPD, his success early in his tenure with the department included playing an integral role in developing community policing strategies that would transform the LAPD.
At a news conference after being sworn in as chief Friday, McDonnell addressed concerns about President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promise of mass deportations: “We don’t do immigration enforcement.”
“Any talk about mass raids or police involvement in those kinds of things – we don’t do those kinds of things,” he said. “We would be alienating a large part of our population, a large part of our community, with something like that. It wouldn’t make sense for us to do that.”
McDonnell said the department will focus on providing services to LA.
“We are here to keep everyone safe – in all communities across our city,” he said. “The way we do that is by nurturing trust, building on and improving the relationships we have. We try to make sure people understand the LAPD. There is no additional risk in terms of your immigration status.”
McDonnell 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.
After earning a Bachelor of Science in criminal justice from St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, McDonnell earned a Masters 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 completed executive education programs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
The swearing-in ceremony will take place at 8 a.m. on Thursday, November 14 at the LAPD Academy in Elysian Park.
