Jim McDonnell Sworn in as Los Angeles 59th Police Chief
Los Angeles — On November 14, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) held a grand inauguration ceremony for the new chief, Jim McDonnell, marking a new chapter for the police force under the new leadership .
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass swore in the former Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell as the 59th chief of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Mayor Bass said, “This is a day of celebration in Los Angeles. This is a new and exciting day for public safety in our city as we officially swear in Jim McDonnell as the 59th Chief of Police of the Los Angeles Police Department. I am very clear that my number one job as Mayor is to keep people safe and that the only way to improve safety in Los Angeles is to make change.
“I want to be clear that the Chief is on the job for one week and has already hit the ground running – meeting with officers and members of the community and getting to work on growing and strengthening the LAPD, work on strengthening community relations and ensuring that our city is prepared for what is to come. That’s why Chief McDonnell was selected and why he was approved by the City Council because as probably the only person in our city’s history with experience in senior leadership of the top three law enforcement agencies in our region, I know we will be prepared for the World Cup, the Olympics and everything that is ahead of for us.”
In his speech, McDonnell outlined his priorities for his first 90 days in office, as well as his vision for the future, “As department in the city of Los Angeles we’re moving forward together. The message that I’ve tried to communicate as clearly as I can is that this is a team effort. Oftentimes people will say where are the police ？ what are the police doing? we want to be there for everybody in our city, but we need to be able to work with all of our other city agencies, community based organizations , and most importantly the public that we serve. So as we move forward my hope is to be able to continue to increase the number of positive relationships. We have the great contacts that we are hoping to make and to be able to look forward to the events ahead, the very significant events where the eyes of the world will be on Los Angeles and to be able to look proudly at that and say we are ready, we did a great job and everybody who came to Los Angeles had a great experience.”
When asked whether to intervene in immigration issues, McDonald stressed in the interview, ” The LAPD’s role is very clear we do not engage in immigration enforcement. We are there for everybody in all of our communities. If we were to do that we would have a chilling effect on people’s willingness to come forward report crime and partner with us , and to have a safe community we need all of the community members to be partners. And so my assurance is that we are not in that business we will not be doing any of the things that people are worried about recently and will work forward with an open dialogue with his concerns we want to hear them and we want to be able to address them quickly. So the rumors don’t get started and we don’t see panic in some of our communities and that’s the last thing we want or need.”
Former police chiefs, senior police officers, trainees, and guests and dignitaries from all walks of life attended the inauguration ceremony.
