After Los Angeles cops shot at individuals on three consecutive days late final month, the LAPD’s civilian bosses turned to Chief Jim McDonnell for a proof.
The Police Fee wished to know: What extra may the division be doing to maintain officers from opening fireplace?
However in his response on the panel’s assembly final week, McDonnell appeared to bristle on the notion his officers had been too trigger-happy.
“I think what we’re seeing is an uptick in the willingness of criminals within the community to assault officers head-on,” he mentioned on the Aug. 26 assembly. “And then officers respond with what they have to do in order to control it.”
The fee has heaped reward on McDonnell for his efficiency since taking up the division in November. However the trade over the latest cluster of police shootings — a part of an total improve that has seen officers open fireplace in 31 incidents this 12 months, up from 20 on the similar level in 2024 — marked a uncommon level of rivalry.
Fee Vice President Rasha Gerges Shields advised the chief that she and her colleagues remained “troubled by the dealings of people both with edged weapons — knives, other things like that — and also those who are in the midst of a mental health crisis.”
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 selection however to open fireplace so as to shield themselves or the general public.
“That is something that’s part of the job unfortunately,” he mentioned. “It’s largely out of the control of the officer and the department as far as exposure to those types 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 ways 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 line 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 group buy-in as important to their mission, mentioned Leap.
Out of the reforms that adopted got here its signature outreach program, the Neighborhood Security Partnership, which eschews arrests in favor of bringing officers along with residents to resolve issues at a few of the metropolis’s most troubled housing initiatives.
Leap mentioned assist for this system has in recent times began to wane, regardless of analysis exhibiting the method has helped drive down crime. “The LAPD has now evolved into an inward-facing organization,” 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 difficulty 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 had been “protecting the feds and the buildings more 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 had been compelled to step in to quell “direct response to immediate, credible threats.”
He additionally issued an inside 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 much broader and wider, realizing that we are not going to be successful unless we work very closely with the community.”
On the time, his appointment was considered with shock in native political circles, the place some questioned why a progressive mayor with a group organizing background like Karen Bass would hitch her fortunes to a law-and-order chief. Others argued that McDonnell was an interesting selection: 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 in recent times, McDonnell’s choice for the job was broadly seen as providing stability whereas the town ready for the huge 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 had been delay by his predecessor Michel Moore’s micromanaging management fashion. 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 deal with 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 totally 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 regulation enforcement officers collaborating in immigration operations as “our partners.”
Andrés Dae Keun Kwon, coverage counsel and senior organizer for the American Civil Liberties Union, mentioned that McDonnell’s file 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.
“Given that we’re three months into this Trump regime siege of Los Angeles you’d think that the leader of this police department” could be extra conscious of the group’s wants, Kwon mentioned.
In an announcement, Clara Karger, a spokeswoman for Bass, mentioned that “each leader has a different role to play in protecting Angelenos and all agree that these indiscriminate raids are having devastating consequences for our city,” 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 licensed to reveal personal discussions — mentioned that behind the scenes some commissioners have began to second-guess the chief’s dealing with of disciplinary instances.
The tensions had 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 fireside their weapons on back-to-back-to-back days final month.
Commissioner Fabian Garcia known as the three shootings “a lot.”
He and his colleagues advised McDonnell they anticipated the LAPD to current a report on the shootings at a future assembly.
McDonnell responded, “Great, thank you,” earlier than launching into his common crime and staffing updates.
