Promotion of Long Beach Officer to Chief Urged
If it were up to the Long Beach City Council, the new chief of police would come from within the ranks of the Police Department.
The mayor and a majority of the council say they hope City Manager James Hankla, who last week fired Lawrence Binkley as police chief, will choose a successor from within the Police Department. “We’ve had some fine officers rise within the ranks and I don’t see why one of them can’t be the chief,” Mayor Ernie Kell said Wednesday.
Hankla is contemplating a replacement for Binkley, who was fired Friday after a six-week city review of his job performance. While concluding that there was insufficient evidence that Binkley “engaged in any act of wrongdoing,” Hankla said he had lost confidence in Binkley’s leadership and judgment.
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