Jim McDonnell, selected by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to lead the LAPD on Friday, isn’t a newcomer to the mammoth agency. He spent the majority of his career there — about 28 years.
He’s also no stranger to standing at the helm of a massive law-enforcement agency, having served as Los Angeles County Sheriff for four years.
But before McDonnell made his bid to become county sheriff, he served as the chief of the Long Beach Police Department from 2010 to 2014.
City and law enforcement leaders say that the legacy he left behind in that coastal community is surely a sign of good things to come for the LAPD — and it bodes well for cooperation between major agencies, they said.
McDonnell’s selection for the Long Beach job was a surprise to some in the local law enforcement community, who had expected an internal candidate — namely, Robert Luna, the current L.A. County Sheriff and previous LBPD Chief, who took over after McDonnell’s tenure — to be selected over an external applicant.
“He is one of the preeminent law enforcement leaders of our time. He’s like a rockstar in the law enforcement world,” said Steve James, former president of the Long Beach Police Officers Association, in a Friday interview. “He’s a very good law enforcement leader, a great chief —but a better person.”
James — who was the union president for 17 years, and worked alongside McDonnell among many other LBPD chiefs — said McDonnell helped navigate the department through a budgetary crisis, and elevated its existing work on community policing and relationship building.
“He was somebody who commanded a great deal of respect. His decisions were based on a lot of knowledge and know-how,” said Rich Chamber’s the POA’s current president, on Friday. “And even with that prior knowledge and all that he had to rely upon, (he listened) to all points of view before making a decision. That was something that I respected.”
McDonnell became chief in 2010, just a few years after the onset of the Great Recession, when Long Beach — alongside the rest of the country — was grappling with the devasting economic downturn.
“It was a very, very tough economic time,” James said. “It wasn’t a matter of getting people, it was a matter of getting the people the tools, appropriate compensation, and benefits that they needed to do the job.”
And McDonnell was successful in meeting those needs for the LBPD, James said.
Mayor Rex Richardson, in a Friday interview, said much the same — drawing comparisons to current financial struggles, attributed largely to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, that Long Beach and Los Angeles alike are still recovering from.
“We were going through significant budget challenges, and it was hard to be able to manage through budget cuts,” Richardson said. “When McDonnell was in Long Beach, he certainly was well respected — (he) understood how to how to engage both with community, how to navigate the city, and how to manage expectations with leadership.”
When McDonnell took up the LBPD job, James said, he took his time to learn the department’s ways — as opposed to implementing sweeping changes immediately upon his arrival — another quality that made him a beloved leader.
“He was so wise that he just came into a great department and took the time to learn our culture, our way of policing our community interactions before he started implementing change,” James said. “And as a result, he didn’t need to make sweeping changes. The department was great when he got there, and quite honestly, even better after he left.”
McDonnell left Long Beach in 2014 after winning his election bid for Los Angeles County Sheriff. Returning to the LAPD, where he started his career, is a significant homecoming for the new chief.
“If you’re not in law enforcement, I think it can be hard to understand the importance of your home agency, and the pride and value you have in that,” James said. “And so I can’t even imagine how much this means to him and his family — and it means a lot to LAPD.”
But McDonnell’s new role isn’t just significant for L.A., it’s also a big deal for Long Beach, and the county at-large, especially as the region prepares to handle some of the world’s biggest events, including the 2028 Summer Olympics, in the next few years.
Three of the region’s largest law enforcement agencies — the LAPD, L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, and of course, LBPD — now have leaders with close professional ties, which were born and developed in Long Beach.
Robert Luna, the current L.A. County Sheriff, LBPD Chief Wally Hebeish, and of course, LAPD’s new chief McDonnell, all worked together at one point in time in Long Beach.
“We have enjoyed a strong partnership with the LAPD over the years, and I am confident that with Chief McDonnell’s exceptional leadership, this collaboration will continue to thrive,” Hebeish said in a Friday statement. “I look forward to working closely with him and the LAPD to ensure the continued safety and well-being of our communities.”
That collaboration, according to both James and Richardson, will be crucial in meeting the region’s public safety needs and challenges in the coming years.
“Every department in the county is drastically understaffed, and you have three of the largest events in the world coming to L.A. County in the next four years,” James said. “So the synergy that these three can hopefully have, and the departments will likely have under the leadership, should be very, very helpful.”
But aside from helping the Los Angeles region handle those events, Richardson is also hopeful that the three departments will be able to work to address other regional challenges.
“The issues within our cities don’t stop at an invisible border, and it’s going to require us to work together across across jurisdictional lines,” Richardson said. “With former Long Beach police chiefs in the role of both sheriff and LAPD chief, (we’re in a good position) to be a part of that regional solution.”
