LAPD on Edge: Who Will Be the Next Police Chief?
Lives depend on Mayor Villaraigosa's decision.
The city of Los Angeles is in the final process of selecting a new police chief to succeed William Bratton, who steps down on October 31. Many of us who serve at the lower ranks of the LAPD are understandably a bit on edge as we await the announcement, as we know very well that the process, fraught with politics as it is, is not designed to produce the most capable leader for the 10,000-officer department. Rather, it is designed to produce a police chief who suits the needs and desires of the mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa.
The five members of the civilian police commission — mayoral appointees all — have just concluded interviews with the remaining applicants, i.e., those who survived the screen-down process conducted by the city’s Personnel Department. The commission will soon submit the names of three finalists to the mayor, who will then choose the new chief from among them. Those left under consideration include most of the LAPD’s upper command staff as well as two police chiefs from other cities whose identities have been closely guarded.
For his part, Bratton has recommended that his successor be chosen from among his own subordinates. Unlike when Bratton was appointed in 2002, when the department was reeling from the effects of ten years of ineffective leadership, today there is little impetus for bringing in an outsider to head the department. It makes no sense to suggest that while the LAPD has for the most part been a success story for these seven years under Bratton, with crime decreasing and public approval increasing, none of the men and women whom he has placed in positions of authority is qualified to take his place.
But knowing that our next chief will in all likelihood be someone familiar to us does not necessarily put us at our ease, for we know that while there are senior officers within the department who have earned the respect of the rank and file, there are others at whom we look in amazement as we mutter to ourselves, “What were they smoking when they promoted these people?”
As cops everywhere know, there is a vast chasm between rank-and-file officers and those who serve as administrators. Those on either side of this chasm are mystified by and sometimes contemptuous of their counterparts on the opposite side. The cop in the squad car drives by police headquarters and wonders why anyone would want to be cooped up in an office all day, while the guy behind the desk looks out the window and wonders why anyone would want to spend twenty years or more with a black-and-white strapped to his rear end. This chasm was vividly illustrated just this week here in Los Angeles in an incident reported to me by several colleagues.
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“Jack Dunphy” is the pseudonym of an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department. The opinions expressed are his own and almost certainly do not reflect those of the LAPD management.
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30 Comments
1. Lilya:*facepalm*
Did those fellows hide behind a doorway when God distributed common sense?
No wonder you are anxious… My thoughts and prayers are with you all.
Good luck.
Oct 25, 2009 - 3:17 am 2. Anonymous:Unfortunately the LAPD are not the only ones suffering from this type of political dumbing down. Lets start with Congress, the White House and most of the Federal government. Academia is loaded with idiots teaching those topics they were too inept to practice on their own or spent too much time on self promotion to earn a living in the real world.
We have seen the end of meritocracy.
Oct 25, 2009 - 6:03 am 3. Rusty Bill:Even an old Air Force electronics tech like me knows that you do not set up your command post next to the enemy’s bivouac. Whoever set up that operation needs to be canned for gross incompetence; I don’t think even retraining can correct that level of stupid.
Oct 25, 2009 - 6:14 am 4. Anonymous:“Who Will Be the Next Police Chief?”
Why not an illegal alien? It seems fitting…..
Oct 25, 2009 - 6:34 am 5. firefirefire:“Who Will Be the Next Police Chief?”
Probably the brass hat who was responsible for setting up the CP .
Oct 25, 2009 - 8:26 am 6. Smarty:Was the idiot in charge a member of a “special victim’s group”? If so, good luck firing him/her/homeboy.
Oct 25, 2009 - 8:42 am 7. Sebastian Shaw:An illegal alien who speaks broken English; meanwhile, California is turned into a toilet instead of a productive state.
Oct 25, 2009 - 8:44 am 8. NahnCee:Bratton has allowed the Mexicans to shut down downtown Los Angeles on numerous occasions with their anti-illegal alien enforcement demonstrations, doubtless at the behest of our strongly pro-Mexico mayor. Unless the new Chief of Police takes cops’ guns away from them and builds a bridge over the Rio Grande so they don’t have to actually walk across the desert to sneak in, how much worse can the new person be.
I’m also quite confident that if the new Chief gets too hinky, there will be a concerted effort on the part of street cops to run him/her out of town on the back of a scandal featuring gross stupidity. Even Villaraigosa couldn’t protect someone as abysmal as Willie Williams, who had his African-America cloak of invisibility to protect himself with.
I would love to know how all of the candidates would answer the question, “do you think there is a planned program of genocide between Mexicans against blacks in Los Angeles, and if so, what do you plan to do about it?”
Oct 25, 2009 - 10:32 am 9. whyyeseyec:One thing you can be sure of. The next police chief will be a minority.
Oct 25, 2009 - 11:44 am 10. Pedrosito:It will be someone with a name similar to mine!
Oct 25, 2009 - 12:13 pm 11. glenn:Maybe the LAPD only wanted to catch the gang dummies. Maybe that’s what the gang leaders wanted too. Oops, did I really say that???
Oct 25, 2009 - 3:06 pm 12. the friendly grizzly:I am so glad I put California, and specifically the L.A. basin in my rear-vew mirror in 2005.
I never had a whole hell of a lot of respect for the LAPD when I lived there, but even they deserve a decent command structure. But with Antonio VillaMecha in the mayor’s office, the LAPD will likely get someone with the “correct” last name and nothing more.
Oct 25, 2009 - 3:27 pm 13. Fredjharris:I’m your man. Old, crippled up, poor vision able to suck at the government titt with Olympic class skill.
Oct 25, 2009 - 5:04 pm 14. NahnCee:Fred, you’re a man which is a strike against you. I’m guessing you’re also maybe white, or have a name that doesn’t end in “ito”. Strike two. Not a Muslim? Strike three — you’re out.
Oct 25, 2009 - 7:24 pm 15. fred suggs:It’s almost humorous the way the same Jack Dunphy who wants up to treat cops deferentially says that his department can’t be trusted.
Hey, Jack, you gonna forgo your generous pension to help out California taxpayers? How many of your retired buddies in blue have a “disability”?
Oct 25, 2009 - 10:11 pm 16. Californio:Wow! This would make a great investigative journalist story – perhaps splashed across the front page of the Los Angeles Time….. oh. Never mind.
Oct 25, 2009 - 10:42 pm 17. Stan Switek:This is the same kind of leadership mentality that allowed the LA riots of 1992 to take place. I found my self and many fellow officers at risk trying to stop the rioting which started not because the verdict in the King case but through a lack of leadership at the command level.
LAPD like most other departments send their command personnel to POST Command College, the FBI National Academy, leadership courses at Westpoint and Harvard. It does not seem to make any difference.
When I retired as a detective sergeant after 30 years, I came to a conclusion as to why so many high ranking officers lack basic street sense.
In order to get you ticket punched for promotion to the higher ranks, you cannot spend a lot of time working things like patrol, vice narcotics, traffic or other operational positions where the nuts and bolts police work is done.
You have to play the game, to climb the ladder. Look at the bios of high ranking personnel in LAPD (or any large department.) You will see assignments like administration, communications, training, Planning and Research, Community Relations, DARE, Commander’s Aide and so on. Not a lot of real policing experience. Just stuff that looks great on the resume.
At the same time you have to complete a BS/BA, MS/MA/MBA and in some cases a JD or PHD. That doe not leave a lot of spare time working working the overtime to frequently come with patrol and many specialized actual crime fighting assignments.
As a result, a fair number of people are finding themselves in the upper echelons of leadership with a minimum of what I refer to operational police experience. They don’t have a clue about what it takes to be a real crime fighter.
Thats my theory, anyway.
Oct 26, 2009 - 8:02 am 18. Kieth Moreland:Nahncee – Bratton, likely, did not (as you say) “allow Mexicans to shutdown Los Angeles.” The people he works for (Mayor & Council), did that. Stan – You are soooo right on in your comments. I, too, spent 30+ years at LAPD, watched who was sent off to all these so-called leadership courses and wondered what they did with their time there, as nothing was any different when they returned….only their resumes seemed padded.
IMO the next chief will probably be a woman or a Hispanic…and probably not because they’re the best candidate to lead and inspire the LAPD, they will be the best candidate to make L.A.’s media audience “feel good” and also do the other most important job in L.A. Making sure that strutting little, smug, attention-seeking, camera-loving mayor gets his face time on T.V.
I, too, left the sinking ship known as L.A., Kullyfohrnya back in 2007. I never look back excpet with amazement and amusement, stopping often to pray for those good, hard-working cops I left behind. May God watch over them and protect them from both bad guys and especially politicians.
Oct 26, 2009 - 8:57 am 19. Doug:There has always be a huge canyon between those that lead the police and those that do the police work. We all saw our share of “pogues” when working patrol – those supervisors that spent their entire shift studying for the Lieutenant’s exam – and knew which Sergeants whose leadership we could actually trust. Every division had them. There was always one that was fond of personnel complaints (called a 1.81 in those days), one that was a pencil counter, one that would correct reports with a red pen requiring a complete rewrite, one that snored at the desk on morning watch, and at least one that promoted because he thought they could actually make an improvement in the life of the street cop.
I was a victim of the Williams administration, and I certainly miss the job, but I’m afraid a 1970’s trained cop would not – could not – make it in the current environment. Probably why intelligent cops get their butts into a swivel chair after ten years or so of riding around in a B&W. If they survived that long without a career ending lapse in judgment, why risk it any longer?
Oct 26, 2009 - 9:04 am 20. John-LAPD RETIRED:I left two years ago, and by many accounts Bill Bratton was better than either Willie or crooked “bitter” Bernie Parks (as and elcetced offical he fits in better than he did at LAPD!).
I have some real fears for the men and women I left be hind and respect. John mack the mayors race baiting lap dog has already been publically willing to hid the names of other possible appliacnts which means the “transparancy” the department has gained is now going back wards by those entrusted to proptect it! Smilen Tony and his LA POlitical machine will now have a free hand to corrupt the department now that Brattons stong will is gone-I suspect the mayor and others in LA wanna “reform” the department even more by appointing a chief who will do their bidding and “not ask questions”
Oct 26, 2009 - 9:35 am 21. DEGUELLO:I NOMINATE RODNEY KING. NO REALLY, FOLKS,THIS IS CLOWNIFORNIA WHERE A MUSCLEBOUND TROGLODYTE,IS GOVERNOR,A CHILD RAPIST IS A LOCAL HERO,AND THEIR MOST FAMOUS REPRESENTATIVE, IS A HUMAN TESTBED FOR BOTOX.MR. KING WILL FIT RIGHT IN.
Oct 26, 2009 - 10:05 am 22. paul_unalaska:Next Chief.. it’s got to be a usurper to Mayor V’s ‘vision’.
One in which L.A. County alone will steal, err, collect $2 billion dollars this coming year in welfare to children of illegal immigrants. Not the measly + $1 billion it does today.
http://antonovich.co.la.ca.us/Pages/Press%20Releases/09/August/Welfare%20costs%20081109.html
Dare to dream, right Mayor V?
Oct 26, 2009 - 11:45 am 23. John-LAPD Retired:Dear Fred Suggs,
I saw your “remarks” about “disablity” and LAPD and “helping CALIFORNIA out” This is an insult and a joke! I got my back broken in 2001 when I was chasing a gangmember with a gun across Victory Blvd at Coldwater, and one of LA “wonderful Ciztens” hit me dead in the street, knocked me to the ground and kept right on going! I was in FULL uniform. The your “wonderful city” took me to Sherman Oaks ER and did some BS X-ray and missed the fractures at T11 and T12! The sent me home with some glorified asprin. A year later I lost all feeling in my hands and legs-then it was too late! It was NON correctable-the cities soultion vicoden 750’s for life and a misrable pension! This was the 3rd time I had been hit by a car in the line of duty. The first time my partner was hit and he lost BOTH HIS LEGS! That was at Manchester and Broadway in 1986. Add to my injuries I have ruptured discs from c1 to c7, torn shoulder muscles and roatator cuffs, and a colesteral level of over 300 with med’s! Yet, due to your wondeful state I could not even afford to live on my pension when the city decided to retire me!
HELP THE STATE!!! I Bled for your state and city-THANK GOD I have atleast lived to tell about it. It was not me who drove the “Peoples Republic of California” into a ditch and on the verg of fiscal collaps! You can thank yourself first becuase you as a voter put those loosers like Smilen Tony into elected office and you keep them in office by re-electing them. If you wanna “help the state” look at States like Texas and ask “why do they have a 9 million dollar surplus in a reccession and california is broke?” Why did they spend 500,000.00 in Los Angeles for a monster “art” form when they were gonna lay off 800 city workers? HELP THE STATE-WAKE UP AND GET REAL!
This artical should be a “warning” to people like you-but you mock it and the service guys like me have made for YOU! Jack is telling you to watch you back-yet you sit and “bash him” and all of us who have the guts to take on one of the worst jobs in the City of LA! Insted of mocking honorable men and women you should drop to your knees every night before bed and pray to God they place themselves in harms way while you sleep warmly and safely in your bed!
Oct 26, 2009 - 12:30 pm 24. John-LAPD RETIRED:NanhCee you wrote “I would love to know how all of the candidates would answer the question, “do you think there is a planned program of genocide between Mexicans against blacks in Los Angeles, and if so, what do you plan to do about it?”
I guess the state is so borke they cut off all your psyc meds-don’t worry send me your tele[hone number I understand Doctor Phil works for free!
Part of Los Angeles problems stem from “race baiters” who juts love to keep tensions hyped up-like John Mack! This way they have a job and pander to radical activisit in the LA Communities! This gives them a voice-just look at that thug who calls himself an “activisit” yet he was convicted for Robbery during the riots of 1992!
Oct 26, 2009 - 12:40 pm 25. Anonymous:Personally, I am sick of hearing how Bratton has been such a crime fighting hero. It is the men and women of the department that fight crime. All he has done is tell you how great he is. He eliminated programs such as DARE and dismissed training for his Metro Officers. Instead of standing behind his men at May Day, he took a political stance to ensure his reappointment only to now leave the job when it’s going to get a little tough with the budget. His treatment of his command staff has been deplorable with his fist pounding tirades at every meeting telling them that he wants nothing to do with LAPD tradition. He has rid the department of excellent Deputy Chiefs who could actually lead the rank and file and had their respect. Bratton needs to take his big ego back to the east coast, write the book he came here to write, and lets hope he stays there this time.
Oct 26, 2009 - 2:22 pm 26. NoNonSense IN LA:Bratton, THX! Dont let the door hit your a@% on the way out……..
GOD BLESS THE REAL MEN & WOMEN OF THE L.A.P.D.
Oct 27, 2009 - 11:56 pm 27. Kieth Moreland:I sit, 1000 miles away, absolutely amazed at the three finalists for the LAPD COP job. None appear to be chosen, as I described in my previous post, merely to cater to minority and women’s groups. These three guys are, for the most part, pretty solid leaders, movers, and shakers. Any one of them could get the job done and get the street cops on board with them. Congratulations to the Police Commissioners who have made, IMO, the right choices for the final candidates for the job. Now, if only the mayor will do the right thing for all….the cops, the city, the people…not just what will get his mug on TV.
Oct 28, 2009 - 7:57 am 28. Paul:Detroit is LA’s, and others future. From New Jersey, in a triangle, up the coast into Maine, and across the Great Lakes to Chicago, and back across the Appalachia are hundreds of dead, welfare cities that once were productive cities.
These were all built by physical workers, masons, carpenters, with steel workers, mill workers, manufactures, mills and build/make shops of all kind.
All gone. And the ethos that these men took to their graves.
LA’s manufacturing, furniture, aircraft…almost all gone.
Now cities are open air welfare plantations. Cops are the civil wardens. Once hand in hand with working class ethos, now but muscle for the administrative welfare state and it’s every, by each generation, morally and ethically devolving mobs.
No one cares about the tactical problems of the police. You take the coin, you do the bidding. Sorry. History is fair and clear. The admin state will continue to grow. That is the future. I’d say a nation our size has a good hundred years growth of Mandarins, administrators, paper shufflers, coat holders, flacks, hacks.
Oct 30, 2009 - 9:17 am 29. TW in OC:NahnCee: “Hinky” – Where’d you learn that word? Thanks
Oct 30, 2009 - 8:07 pm 30. Curtis Lemanski:To correct some inaccuracies in the otherwise well-written article, the briefing was not given over a loudspeaker. I was standing thirty yards away and could not hear it. The task force got over 70% of the suspects they were looking for that morning. I’ll admit, I’d probably have chosen a different location for the briefing, but this did not diminish the success of the operation in the least. The FBI will be talking about this take down around the water cooler for years to come. I think it was one of the most successful LAPD/FBI joint task forces (without the use of a wire) ever.
However, there is definitely a schism between rank-and-file and brass. What the department needed was an LAPD verion of former US Marine Corps Commandant General Gray.
Let’s see if Chief Beck can steer this ship through the storm that’s just about to hit the coast.
Nov 4, 2009 - 10:45 am