Los Angeles

Angelenos voice frustrations as search for new LAPD chief nears end

LAPD police commissioners heard complaints about the finalists for the chief of police position, as well as calls to redirect department funding to underserved communities.

Photo of a sign in front of a building
LAPD headquarters (Photo by Ethan Huang)

The expected finalists of Mayor Karen Bass’ months-long search for a new Los Angeles Police Department chief elicited negative reactions from community members at Tuesday’s weekly police commissioner meeting.

During the public comment period of the session, Angelenos raised concerns on the qualifications of the rumored picks, reported by the Los Angeles Times to be former LAPD Deputy Chief Robert Arcos, LAPD Deputy Chief Emada Tingirides and former Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell.

Dominic Choi, a USC alumnus and LAPD assistant chief, has served as the LAPD interim chief of police since March 1 after Michel Moore stepped down.

One community member who joined the event remotely questioned why there had been little discussion of the results of a survey showing support among officers for hiring a new chief from outside of LAPD.

“[LAPD] does not represent the people, and it’s obvious,” the caller said. “Why did [you] not mention once that the people and the officers requested an outside chief of police? Instead this commission sends three candidates forward who are all former LAPD … this commission and our disgrace of a mayor would rather pick a puppet you can control.”

The survey in question was conducted by the Mayor’s office in the course of the search for a new police chief. Results released last week showed officers reported feeling significant disconnect with higher leadership and a workplace culture where minor mistakes are punished harshly.

Another virtual participant raised concerns that the options for chief were chosen on the basis of race and sex instead of experience.

“L.A. is being run by a radical DEI mayor with a radical DEI agenda,” the caller said. “You guys are picking a DEI candidate for the new police chief … isn’t meritocracy important?”

Some Angelenos commented on defunding certain LAPD initiatives in order to reinvest in low-income communities. Jayme Kusyk, a member of Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, spoke in person about the Community Safety Partnership, an initiative launched in 2011 with the goal of promoting communication between officers and L.A. residents.

“The idea of community policing is a counterinsurgency tactic intended to expand surveillance, cultivate informants and divert much needed resources from the community to create dependency,” Kusyk said. “We refuse to be instrumentalized and deputized by the police and have our communities torn apart with distrust.”

She added that the money spent on CSP would be better spent by investing in the low-income, minority communities the program is focused on.

“The whole program is about presumption of guilt and assigning collective criminality to the community. Take the money out of the police budget and give it directly to the community,” Kusyk said.

Hamid Khan, an organizer at Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, spoke in person about a number of past LAPD chiefs with a history of racist community policing tactics.

Speaking to Annenberg Media after the session, Khan added it was important to look “at the lineage of who these chiefs are.”

“We just want [policing] to be shut down,” he said. “When we talk about public safety, who’s the ‘public’ that needs to be kept safe, and from whom do they need to be kept safe?”

Kusyk noted the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition is, on a larger scale, focused on the disestablishment of law enforcement as it currently stands.

“We are an anti-reform group. We are dedicated to the abolition of policing entirely,” she said. “I would so much prefer that [LAPD’s] money be diverted towards communities, towards individual people, to be put towards their welfare and well being.”