Jim McDonnell sworn in as LAPD chief amid immigration concerns

Jim McDonnell is sworn in by Los Angeles City Clerk Holly Wolcott as the new police chief.

Nov. 8, 2024 5:05 PM PT

The Los Angeles City Council on Friday confirmed Jim McDonnell as the city’s 59th police chief in a split 11-2 vote, and he was later officially sworn in in front of a crowded room of city leaders.

While several council members praised Mayor Karen Bass’ selection of a respected and experienced lawman to lead the department, the lack of unanimous approval underscored lingering concerns around McDonnell’s record on immigration as President-elect Donald Trump returns to office.

McDonnell, who has made few public appearances since his appointment, delivered his strongest comments yet about ensuring that the department would not participate in federal immigration enforcement.

“LAPD will not assist with mass deportations. Los Angeles is a city of immigrants, and I know that immigrants are being disparaged right now,” McDonnell told the council, striking a more decisive tone than he did in answering some of the same questions at a previous committee hearing. “My job is to protect everyone in Los Angeles and to build trust, and that’s what I plan to do.”

After the new chief’s private swearing in, Bass said she “was so appreciative of the way he handled everything.”

“He heard everything people said. And to me, that is just emblematic of the type of chief he will be,” she said. A public swearing-in ceremony is expected to be held next week.

Councilmembers Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martínez cast votes against McDonnell, with Kevin de León and Heather Hutt absent.

In response to a question about how he will ensure that all officers under his command will comply with the department’s immigration rules, McDonnell said, “It’s very clear what our policies are.”

“Accountability is basically the foundation of trust, and we are accountable to the rule of law and to the policies of this organization,” he said.

When asked about a hypothetical scenario in which LAPD officers had detained someone in the back of a police car and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials asked to hand them over, McDonnell replied his officers would not comply.

Most of the opposition has focused on McDonnell’s past willingness to allow immigration authorities into the country’s largest jail system, which he did while serving as L.A. County sheriff from 2014 to 2018. Permitting federal agents to target inmates for deportation, critics say, led to the forced separation of “thousands of families.”

McDonnell said he had evolved in the 10 years since he was sheriff, but argued that his record was misunderstood. He pointed to statistics showing that the number of incarcerated people released to immigration authorities fell to 820 in the last year of his tenure, from the more than 7,800 in 2013, the year before his election. The number of U-Visas, which provide protections to immigrants who are victims of crimes, sponsored by the department also climbed during his tenure.

The council’s split vote on the LAPD chief was unusual. McDonnell’s two immediate predecessors, Michel Moore and Charlie Beck, were each confirmed unanimously.

Soto-Martínez said in an interview before the vote that he would stick with his “no” vote from last week’s public safety committee meeting, where he grilled McDonnell on his record on immigration and his views on traffic enforcement.

Soto-Martínez, whose district stretches from Echo Park to Hollywood, said he remained concerned about the new chief’s “history at the county working with ICE and expanding some of his policies.”

“I don’t have any questions today, but I’m voting no,” he said.

The council also approved McDonnell’s $450,000 yearly salary. It was lowered from the initial salary proposal of $507,509, which spurred criticism with the city facing financial straits.

While McDonnell was before the City Council, several hundred activists gathered for a rally Friday morning in front of City Hall, calling for a new “sanctuary city” law that would bar city personnel and resources from being used in federal immigration enforcement.

Many clutched signs reading “Trump out of LAPD” and “McDonnell is anti-immigrant,” while a band played cumbia and banda music from the back of a flatbed truck.

“Sheriff McDonnell does not deserve and does not have the trust of the community he is sworn to protect,” Pablo Alvarado of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network said in a statement.

The council vote on McDonnell was preceded by a fiery public comment period, which featured about 85 speakers split between supporters and detractors.

One speaker said she feared for the safety of children in her Westside neighborhood and said she supported McDonnell, who she believed “will help restore peace, safety and calm to our city.”

Like others who supported McDonnell, her comments were met by a smattering of both applause and jeers.

Andrés Dae Keun Kwon, a senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, said “thousands of families” were separated thanks to the Sheriff Department’s cozy relationship with federal immigration authorities.

Pastor Stephen Cue Jn-Marie, founder of Creating Justice LA, called McDonnell’s appointment “a spit in our face,” after he was voted out of office by L.A. County residents after one term as sheriff. “You want to pay this man $500,000 a year, and we’re in a budget deficit?”

Some Latino establishment community and political figures expressed disappointment that Bass did not pick Robert “Bobby” Arcos, a former LAPD assistant chief who would have been the first Latino leader in the department’s long history. In a list of finalists presented to Bass by the Police Commission, McDonnell was ranked third behind Arcos and Deputy Chief Emada Tingirides, who is Black.

At a news conference after his confirmation, McDonnell addressed questions about whether he’d cooperate with Trump’s deportation efforts.

“Any talk of mass roundups or the Police Department being involved in that thing — we don’t do that kind of thing,” McDonnell said. “We would alienate much of our population, much of our community, by doing anything like that. So it would make no sense for us to do that.”

The new chief added, “We’re here to keep everybody safe in all communities throughout our city, and the way we do that is by nurturing trust.”

Times staff writer Dakota Smith contributed to this report.