Los Angeles mayor picks ex-sheriff to be city's police chief

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former LA County Sheriff Jim McDonnell has been selected to lead the Los Angeles Police Department, taking charge of the force of nearly 9,000 officers as discontent grows among the city's residents over public safety even as violent crime numbers drop, the mayor announced Friday.

Mayor Karen Bass, who had the final say after a civilian board of Los Angeles police commissioners vetted McDonnell, said her selection of a veteran law enforcement officer was based on a need to reduce crime and make every neighborhood safer. Bass met with hundreds of LAPD officers and community leaders before making her decision.

The Los Angeles City Council still needs to approve the choice.

The pick ended debate over whether Bass would choose an “insider” or “outsider” who would shake things up and challenge the way things were done within the department’s insular culture.

“From the beginning, I have been clear: My top priority as mayor is to ensure that Angelenos and our neighborhoods are safer today than yesterday,” Bass said. “Chief McDonnell is a leader, an innovator, and a change maker, and I am looking forward to working with him to grow and strengthen LAPD.”

The incoming chief will have to make sure the department is ready for the additional security challenges of the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics.

McDonnell was elected LA County Sheriff in 2014 to oversee the largest sheriff’s department in the U.S. Before that, he spent 29 years in the LAPD and served as Long Beach’s police chief for almost five years.

McDonnell vowed to enhance public safety, grow back the force that has shrunk from about 10,000 officers in 2019, and “ensure respectful and constitutional policing practices.”

McDonnell, 65, said he was happy to come out of retirement to do the job.

“I feel like I still have gas in the tank, fire in the belly, if you will, and a desire to be able to try and be helpful," he said.

The appointment follows the surprise retirement of Chief Michel Moore in early 2024. Moore’s tenure was marked by greater scrutiny into excessive force and police killings of civilians in the nation’s second-largest city. Dominic Choi has led the department as interim chief — and the first Asian American chief — since March 2024. Bass thanked Choi for his work, and said he will continue to serve as assistant chief under McDonnell.

Some had hoped Bass, the first Black woman to be elected mayor in 2022, would use the opportunity to make history and fill the post with the first Latino or female chief. The LAPD has had two Black male chiefs in the past. McDonnell is white.

The other two candidates sent to Bass, who made the final selection, were Deputy Chief Emada Tingirides, a Black woman, and former Assistant Chief Robert “Bobby” Arcos, who is Latino. Both were reported by the Los Angeles Times as finalists for the position.

Bass said she has been a champion of inclusion for her whole career.

“I think there’s work that needs to be done in the LAPD,” Bass said. “I will continue to pay attention to representation particularly with the Latino population which we know is half of the city of Los Angeles.”

The LAPD has faced criticism through the years over its response to the George Floyd protests and several high-profile shootings by officers. It has struggled to get rid of bad cops while also struggling to recruit as more officers leave its ranks than are coming in.

The police officers' union, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, applauded the mayor's choice.

“Her selection of former County Sheriff Jim McDonnell as the next chief of police confirms the mayor’s commitment to improve historic lows in officer staffing and officer morale and to fix LAPD’s broken discipline process," the organization said in a statement. “We have every confidence in Chief McDonnell’s ability to hit the ground running to improve public safety in Los Angeles and to appoint an upper command staff that will do away with the status quo and turn a new page for the LAPD.”

John Sullivan, who retired as a lieutenant in 2018 after 30 years at the county sheriff's department, called McDonnell a “hybrid” in the insider-outsider debate.

“He grew up in the organization, he knows the organization ... but he’s also been the chief of a separate department, and he’s also been sheriff,” Sullivan said. McDonnell would bring a “fresh set of eyes” to the LAPD's problems while understanding the concerns of the rank-and-file.

At the LAPD, McDonnell held every rank from police officer to second-in-command under former LAPD chief Bill Bratton. During that time, he helped implement a federal consent decree imposed on the department largely as a result of the Rampart scandal, a corruption case involving rampant misconduct within the anti-gang unit.

When he was elected county sheriff, he inherited a department in the wake of a jail abuse corruption scandal that led to convictions against his predecessor, Lee Baca, and more than 20 other officials. Members of a civilian watchdog commission applauded McDonnell for embracing federal mandates for jail reform, including improving de-escalation training and better documentation of the use of force that has led to improved jail conditions, the Los Angeles Times reported.

In 2022, he joined the University of Southern California as director of the Safe Communities Institute, which conducts research on public safety solutions.

McDonnell also served on an advisory committee to USC's Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Threats and Emergencies, a U.S. Homeland Security department-funded institution to do research on counterterrorism, according to Sullivan. His experience with studying international security threats could be an asset as police chief.

“We have really large public events that are coming that could well be terrorist targets," Sullivan said, referring to the World Cup and Olympics. "The war in Gaza, the brewing war in south Lebanon, all that's going to have echoes or ripples here in Los Angeles.”

Newly appointed Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell listens during a news conference in Los Angeles, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, right, and newly appointed police chief Jim McDonnell share a light moment during a news conference in Los Angeles, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, right, and newly appointed police chief Jim McDonnell, center, arrive for a news conference in Los Angeles, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Newly appointed Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell listens to questions from the media during a news conference in Los Angeles, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, right, and newly appointed police chief Jim McDonnell shake hands during a news conference in Los Angeles, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, right, introduces newly appointed police chief Jim McDonnell during a news conference in Los Angeles, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, left, and newly appointed police chief Jim McDonnell listen to questions from the media during a news conference in Los Angeles, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Newly appointed Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell attends a news conference in Los Angeles, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Newly appointed Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell speaks during a news conference in Los Angeles, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hours clicking toward a midnight government shutdown deadline, the Senate was preparing to give final passage late Friday to a new plan that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster aid, but drops President-elect Donald Trump's demands for a debt limit increase into the new year.

House Speaker Mike Johnson had insisted Congress would “meet our obligations” and not allow federal operations to shutter ahead of the Christmas holiday season. But the day's outcome was uncertain after Trump doubled down on his insistence that a debt ceiling increase be included in any deal — if not, he said in an early morning post, let the closures “start now.”

The House approved Johnson's new bill overwhelmingly, 366-34, and the Senate was working late into the night toward votes.

“This is a good outcome for the country, ” Johnson said afterward, adding he had spoken with Trump and the president-elect “was certainly happy about this outcome, as well.”

It was the third attempt from Johnson, the beleaguered House speaker, to achieve one of the basic requirements of the federal government — keeping it open. And it raised stark questions about whether Johnson will be able to keep his job, in the face of angry GOP colleagues, and work alongside Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk, who called the legislative plays, from afar.

President Joe Biden, who has played a less public role in the process throughout a turbulent week, was expected to quickly sign the measure into law.

Trump's last-minute demand was almost an impossible ask, and Johnson had almost no choice but to work around his pressure for a debt ceiling increase. The speaker knew there wouldn’t be enough support within the GOP majority to pass any funding package, since many Republican deficit hawks prefer to slash federal government and certainly wouldn’t allow more debt.

Instead, the Republicans, who will have full control of the White House, House and Senate next year, with big plans for tax cuts and other priorities, are showing they must routinely rely on Democrats for the votes needed to keep up with the routine operations of governing.

“So is this a Republican bill or a Democrat bill?” scoffed Musk on social media ahead of the vote.

The drastically slimmed-down 118-page package would fund the government at current levels through March 14 and add $100 billion in disaster aid and $10 billion in agricultural assistance to farmers.

Gone is Trump’s demand to lift the debt ceiling, which GOP leaders told lawmakers would be debated as part of their tax and border packages in the new year. Republicans made a so-called handshake agreement to raise the debt limit at that time while also cutting $2.5 trillion in spending over 10 years.

It’s essentially the same deal that flopped the night before in a spectacular setback — opposed by most Democrats and some of the most conservative Republicans — minus Trump’s debt ceiling demand.

But it's far smaller than the original bipartisan accord Johnson struck with Democratic and Republican leaders — a 1,500-page bill that Trump and Musk rejected, forcing him to start over. It was stuffed with a long list of other bills — including much-derided pay raises for lawmakers — but also other measures with broad bipartisan support that now have a tougher path to becoming law.

House Democrats were cool to the latest effort after Johnson reneged on the hard-fought bipartisan compromise.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said it looked like Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, was calling the shots for Trump and Republicans.

“Who is in charge?” she asked during the debate.

Still, the Democrats put up more votes than Republicans for the bill's passage. Almost three dozen conservative Republicans voted against it.

“The House Democrats have successfully stopped extreme MAGA Republicans from shutting down the government, crashing the economy and hurting working class Americans all across the nation,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said after the vote.

Trump, who has not yet been sworn into office, is showing the power but also the limits of his sway with Congress, as he intervenes and orchestrates affairs from Mar-a-Lago alongside Musk, who is heading up the incoming administration's new Department of Government Efficiency.

The incoming Trump administration vows to slash the federal budget and fire thousands of employees and is counting on Republicans for a big tax package. And Trump's not fearful of shutdowns the way lawmakers are, having sparked the longest government shutdown in history in his first term at the White House.

“If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now,” Trump posted early in the morning on social media.

More important for the president-elect was his demand for pushing the thorny debt ceiling debate off the table before he returns to the White House. The federal debt limit expires Jan. 1, and Trump doesn't want the first months of his new administration saddled with tough negotiations in Congress to lift the nation's borrowing capacity. Now Johnson will be on the hook to deliver.

“Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling,” Trump posted — increasing his demand for a new five-year debt limit increase. "Without this, we should never make a deal."

Government workers had already been told to prepare for a federal shutdown which would send millions of employees — and members of the military — into the holiday season without paychecks.

Biden has been in discussions with Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “Republicans blew up this deal. They did, and they need to fix this.”

As the day dragged on with no deal in sight, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell stepped in to remind colleagues “how harmful it is to shut the government down, and how foolish it is to bet your own side won’t take the blame for it.”

At one point, Johnson asked House Republicans for a lunchtime meeting for a show of hands as they tried to choose the path forward.

It wasn't just the shutdown, but the speaker's job on the line. The speaker's election is the first vote of the new Congress, which convenes Jan. 3, and some Trump allies have floated Musk for speaker.

Johnson said he spoke to Musk ahead of the vote Friday and they talked about the “extraordinary challenges of this job.”

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves, Mary Clare Jalonick, Darlene Superville and Bill Barrow contributed to this report.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks to reporters after passing the funding bill to avert the government shutdown at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks to reporters after passing the funding bill to avert the government shutdown at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The Capitol is pictured in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., emerges from a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., emerges from a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., talks with reporters after attending a meeting with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., as the House works on a spending bill to avert a shutdown of the Federal Government, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)

FILE - President-elect Donald Trump poses for a photo with Dana White, Kid Rock and Elon Musk at UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden, Nov. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks briefly to reporters just before a vote on an interim spending bill to prevent a government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. The vote failed to pass. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)