Pomeroy’s Style Stayed Unchanged

“So vanilla” is how Martin Pomeroy described himself in interviews Tuesday, shortly after being sworn in as the Los Angeles Police Department’s 53rd chief.

“You know, I was married in June of 1968 and then I entered the police academy in 1969, and from those dates forward, my life was just family and the LAPD,” Pomeroy said, shrugging, when asked to talk about his background.

Interviews with colleagues and former underlings of Pomeroy on Tuesday revealed a strikingly consistent portrait of a classical LAPD commander--competent, poker-faced and cautious.

Pomeroy’s style has remained unchanged from his earliest days with the LAPD, said longtime colleague Garrett Zimmon, a retired LAPD commander who is now chief of the San Bernardino police. “He is very principled, hard-working and ethical,” Zimmon said. “People trust him; they follow him willingly.”

“He is absolutely superb.... And you never know what he is thinking,” LAPD Cmdr. Dan Koenig said.

Pomeroy is “not a glamour-seeking, publicity-type executive,” said Dan Hoffman, Pomeroy’s adjutant for many years and now a retired LAPD lieutenant who is a vice president of a security company. “You get the best of him one-on-one.”

Shortly after being named to the post, LAPD’s new interim chief revealed little, and seemed to choose his words carefully as he settled into the high-profile job of overseeing the 8,900-officer force Tuesday.

Pomeroy was even reluctant to describe his interests, at first admitting only to liking golf. When asked about fly-fishing, though, he couldn’t suppress a grin: But of course he fly-fishes, he owned. “Everyone in my town in Montana fly-fishes.”

Pomeroy, a former deputy chief and 31-year LAPD veteran who retired in December 2000, has temporarily moved back from retirement in Montana to take charge of the department until a permanent chief is hired.

The process is expected to take about six months. The previous chief, Bernard C. Parks, retired last week after failing to win reappointment to a second five-year term.

Pomeroy’s efforts to seem mild and unassuming, however, have only served to enhance his reputation as a strong leader within the LAPD.

Pomeroy, 56, was born in Arizona but raised in Lynwood, Calif., then Fullerton. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Redlands, and a master’s in public communications from Pepperdine University.

He rose rapidly through the ranks of the LAPD in the 1980s. From his post as commanding officer of the Southeast detective division, he went on to serve in the juvenile division, as head of the narcotics group, and as head of the criminal intelligence section.

In 1993, he stepped into the deputy chief job overseeing the San Fernando Valley bureau, and became one of the heavy hitters among LAPD’s deputy chiefs, finally overseeing LAPD’s headquarters bureau.

Along the way, he was placed in charge of disaster response operations in the Valley following the 1994 Northridge earthquake. He also was the senior LAPD official on the scene at the 1997 North Hollywood shootout, in which two gun-toting bank robbers rampaged through city streets, and was involved in the early stages of investigating Rampart corruption allegations.

Pomeroy also commanded LAPD operations during the 2000 Democratic National Convention. But the job he was most remembered for Tuesday was what associates described as his most difficult: He represented the LAPD during negotiations with federal government officials that led to a decree reforming the LAPD. The department is carrying out the elaborate and expensive provisions of that decree under the watch of the federal court and a court-appointed monitor.

It is this role that earned him high marks from a number of Los Angeles political leaders, and that, in the eyes of the Police Commission, sealed his credentials as a reformer.

According to Gerald Chaleff, a former president of the Police Commission who was involved in consent-decree negotiations at the same time as Pomeroy, the then-deputy chief earned the respect of his negotiating partners by thorough preparation and intelligence. “Even when they disagreed ... they respected him,” Chaleff said.

Pomeroy’s methodical style also marked his dealings with the commission, Chaleff said. He recalled that Pomeroy wrote a lengthy defense of the Police Department’s position on the police shooting of Margaret Mitchell, a diminutive, mentally disabled homeless woman armed only with a screwdriver.

The shooting was one of the most controversial in LAPD’s recent history, and caused a serious rift between LAPD brass, who found the shooting in accord with policy, and commissioners, who disagreed. Chaleff said that although Pomeroy did not ultimately prevail, his careful, well-reasoned defense of the shooting was memorable, and gave commissioners pause.

Some Consider Him Too Close to Parks

Some LAPD insiders said Tuesday that Pomeroy had not been without detractors, and was considered by some commanders to be too close to Parks, who endured the enmity of LAPD’s labor organizations.

Pomeroy was once roundly criticized by a black officers organization for not supporting more promotions of African Americans. But Tuesday, Ronnie Cato, president of the Oscar Joel Bryant Foundation, said his group would support the new interim chief.

Similarly, Mitzi Grasso, president of the Police Protective League, called Pomeroy’s selection “a wise choice,” and said the union looked forward to working with him.

One of Pomeroy’s four grown children is an officer in LAPD’s Newton division. He remains married to wife Pamilla. He will continue to draw his pension while filling the job. His salary has yet to be negotiated. Pomeroy said his first action upon starting work today would be to meet with the police league, as well as the union representing command officers. After that, he planned to meet with deputy chiefs, the department’s monitor and community members.

He said he would focus on bringing stability to the department rather than making big changes, and will be especially concerned with repairing LAPD’s tarnished image.

“There is an image of LAPD as dispirited, of officers not working hard enough, of being incompetent,” he said. “But this is a proud organization, a compassionate organization.”