Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore’s sudden announcement last Friday that he’ll retire earlier than expected means the search is on for a new leader to run the nation’s third-largest police department.
Mayor Karen Bass has not specified when she hopes to make the hire but said last week she was launching an immediate nationwide search for L.A.’s next police chief and that the search process will include “significant community input and consultation with law enforcement officers and experts.”
The mayor-appointed Los Angeles Police Commission is expected to appoint an interim chief while the search for Moore’s permanent replacement is underway.
In the meantime, former city officials and community members have begun sharing their thoughts on what they’re hoping to see in the next chief.
The board of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents LAPD officers, said in a statement that it’s looking for a leader committed to rebuilding the number of police officers in the department, reducing violent crime and improving morale.
“These are challenging times for our city, as well as for our profession and we will need a leader unafraid of speaking truth to power, who will advocate for our rank and file and the safety of all Angelenos,” the league said.
Ex-LAPD officer Joe Buscaino, a former L.A. city councilmember representing District 15, said on Monday, Jan. 15, that L.A. has diverse communities and LAPD’s policing needs vary greatly — from upscale Porter Ranch in the San Fernando Valley to working-class Watts in South L.A. to the harbor community of San Pedro.
He said the next LAPD chief should understand those differences. Buscaino said he hopes the next police chief “is not afraid to push against (calls for) defunding the police but also recognizes there are calls for service that police officers should not be responding to.”
Among those who have called for defunding the LAPD is Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles.
Since BLM-LA does not support the LAPD’s existence, Abdullah said on Monday that she does not support the overall idea of a police chief. But as long as L.A. has a police chief, Abdullah said, it’s critical that there be adequate community input in the selection of that person.
“The community should play a role. There should be public forums. … There should be a community selection process,” said Abdullah.
She added that the names of the candidates for LAPD chief should be shared with the public.
In 2018, Mayor Eric Garcetti bucked a trend and chose not to publicly reveal the three finalists he was considering to replace then-Police Chief Charlie Beck. Multiple news outlets, including the Los Angeles Daily News, reported the names of the final candidates anyway — after learning their identities.
Besides Moore, the other finalists Garcetti considered in 2018 were Robert Arcos, then an LAPD deputy chief who’s now chief of the Bureau of Investigation in the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office, and San Francisco Police Chief William Scott, who worked for many years in the LAPD.
It’s unknown if either Arcos or Scott are interested in putting their names forward again this time.
Buscaino, echoing sentiments he voiced in 2018, said he would be supportive of L.A. hiring its first female police chief, and he believes there are qualified candidates already working within the LAPD.
“The time is right to find a qualified woman to lead the LAPD,” Buscaino said on Monday. “Other police departments in the county have.”
Los Angeles has seen a number of women step up to high-profile leadership roles in recent years.
In March 2022, Kristin Crowley became the first woman chief to lead the Los Angeles Fire Department in the city’s history. And that November, Angelenos elected Bass as L.A.’s first female mayor as well as Hydee Feldstein Soto as L.A.’s first female city attorney.
In addition, changes to the makeup of the City Council that year led to a record number of women serving on the council.
On Monday, Buscaino said he hadn’t spoken with LAPD Deputy Chief Emada Tingirides and doesn’t know if she’d be interested in applying for Moore’s job. But Buscaino, who worked with Tingirides when he was on the police force, said she would be a strong candidate should she apply, noting that she was a finalist for the Austin police chief job in 2021.
“Don’t count her out as a candidate,” said Buscaino, adding that Tingirides has been at the forefront of an LAPD community policing model.
Another name mentioned by some was that of LAPD Commander Ruby Flores, president of the Los Angeles Women Police Officers and Associates, according to her biography on the LAPD website. Flores was tapped as the department’s first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer in 2020.
Neither Tingirides nor Flores responded to emails asking whether they would be interested in applying for the job of police chief in L.A.
As for the selection process, according to the city’s charter, the personnel department must forward the names of at least six qualified candidates to the Board of Police Commissioners, which would then recommend to the mayor three candidates in ranked order.
Mayor Bass can appoint one of those three people or request an additional three names for consideration. Whoever she appoints must be confirmed by the Los Angeles City Council.
