Oxnard Chief Seeks LAPD Job

Vowing to lead the battered Los Angeles police back to national prominence, Oxnard Police Chief Art Lopez on Thursday announced his candidacy for the department’s top job.

Lopez, 52, spent 27 years with the LAPD, leaving four years ago as a deputy chief. If selected by the Los Angeles Police Commission and Mayor James K. Hahn, he would be the city’s first Latino chief, according to the Los Angeles Police Historical Society.

In an interview, Lopez said he would attempt to boost plummeting morale in a department still stained by the Rampart corruption scandal. He also promised to breathe life into the department’s efforts to bring officers closer to the neighborhoods they serve.

“I want to be part of improving the quality of life in my community,” said Lopez, who still maintains a home in the San Fernando Valley’s Porter Ranch neighborhood. “I can help drive that through community policing.”

Directing Oxnard’s 325-member force for the last four years, Lopez has instituted the kind of community policing programs that former LAPD Chief Bernard Parks was severely criticized for dismantling.

However, Lopez’s tenure in Oxnard has had its share of troubles, with the city experiencing a string of deadly police shootings and officers being accused of racial profiling.

Last year, five people--three of them mentally ill--were fatally shot by Oxnard officers. Relatives of one, Robert Lee Jones, have sued the department, contending that the killing was unjustified and prompted by racial profiling.

The Ventura County district attorney’s office concluded that officers acted properly in four of the deaths. A report on the Jones shooting is to be issued this month.

Lopez acknowledged that the shootings may fuel opposition to his appointment but said his response to them strengthened the Oxnard department.

“We’ve changed our policies on dealing with the mentally ill,” he said. “We’ve implemented a crisis intervention team and changed our method of responding to calls by having less lethal capabilities.”

Oxnard officers have been better trained in confronting emotionally distraught suspects and in using nonlethal weapons such as Tasers and beanbag guns. The instruction has paid off, defusing volatile situations in which officers otherwise might have used their guns, Lopez said.

Likewise, Lopez said, charges of profiling against his department prompted him to start educational programs involving high school students, religious leaders and community groups.

“Instead of burying the criticism, we built upon it,” he said.

Some local activists agree.

“He’s responded whenever we’ve come forward with complaints,” said Hank Lacayo, president of El Concilio del Condado de Ventura, the county’s biggest Latino advocacy group. “I see a difference in the demeanor of the Oxnard P.D. There are more attempts to reach out. They’re recognizing you can’t just apply the law by billy club and gun.”

Lopez says he would be “a chief for everyone,” but his Latino roots could be a plus for Hahn, said L.A.-based political consultant Joe Cerrell.

Observing that a number of contenders are highly qualified, Cerrell said appointing a Latino chief would be “a smart move” for Hahn. The mayor was criticized by black leaders for dumping Parks, one of the city’s most visible African Americans.

“From a strictly political view, it would also be smart to appoint a woman or an African American,” Cerrell said. “They just have to find the best person.”

If the LAPD’s top job eludes him, Lopez said, he will stay on in Oxnard, which seemed to suit city officials.

“He certainly has a home here,” said Manuel Lopez, Oxnard’s mayor. “He’s been very, very effective. He’s fully committed to community-based policing and it has worked well here.”

Starting as an LAPD patrol officer in 1971, Art Lopez eventually supervised a staff of more than 2,300 as deputy chief in charge of operations at the department’s central bureau. He was rebuffed twice in his bid for the chief’s post, choosing the top position in Oxnard when passed over in 1998.

Others who have expressed interest in the LAPD chief’s job include Deputy Chiefs David Kalish and Margaret York, Cmdr. Jim McDonnell, and Portland, Ore., Police Chief Mark Kroeker. The Los Angeles Police Commission plans to conduct a nationwide search for candidates.

The field will be narrowed to three by the commission. Hahn will nominate one of the three, who will require confirmation by the City Council.

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Oxnard Police Chief Art Lopez

Current job: Chief, Oxnard Police Department

Age: 52

Residence: Oxnard weekdays; Porter Ranch weekends

Education: Bachelor’s degree in public administration from USC; master’s in management from Cal Poly Pomona

Career highlights: Instituted a community policing program as L.A. Police Department commanding officer of Hollenbeck Area that served as a department model; established departmental office of the ombudsperson; merged Metropolitan Transportation Authority police into LAPD; served as field commander in Watts during the 1992 riots. As Oxnard police chief, developed community advisory boards in four city districts; started community councils for various ethnic groups; and started a “clergy council” for input to police.

Interests: Reading, running, golf

Family: Married, with two adult daughters