LAPD’s McDonnell takes top post in Long Beach department

Jim McDonnell, a top assistant to former Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton and a finalist to replace him, was named Wednesday as the next chief of the Long Beach Police Department.

McDonnell, 50, oversees the LAPD’s detective bureau and will be sworn in next month as Long Beach’s 25th police chief.

“I’m looking forward to working with the men and women of the Long Beach Police Department and the community to help make a great city an even safer city,” McDonnell said. He added that he will continue to emphasize “respectful and compassionate policing,” a philosophy he said he has maintained his entire career.

Long Beach, a sprawling 52-square-mile city, has a population of about 463,000.

McDonnell, a 29-year veteran of the LAPD, was viewed as an ambassador who helped the department build bridges with the city’s diverse communities and political leaders as Bratton’s chief of staff and second in command.

He succeeds Anthony Batts, who commanded the roughly 1,000-officer Long Beach force for seven years and became chief of the Oakland Police Department last year.

McDonnell takes over a department that struggled last year with a surge in officer-involved shootings and has long battled entrenched gang crime, particularly in the neighborhoods north of downtown and in North Long Beach.

“He talks a little funny and I understand that he may root for the wrong basketball team,” Mayor Bob Foster said of the Boston native at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “But all kidding aside, the residents of Long Beach should know that their safety is in exceptional hands.”

But Foster also cited the “very difficult fiscal environment,” as a leading issue facing the incoming chief.

Long Beach City Councilman Robert Garcia said he looks forward to working with McDonnell but also noted that despite a strong reputation as a law enforcement leader, he faces a learning curve.

“He’s going to be coming into a force where morale has been typically good, but I think there’s always more challenges for someone coming in from the outside.”

McDonnell was not originally considered as a candidate for the job because the application process was limited to Long Beach Police command staff.

City Manager Pat West decided to open the process up to outside candidates in December, a move that was criticized by some department veterans as a sign of disrespect.

As a candidate for LAPD chief in 2002, McDonnell presented a blueprint for community-based policing that was adopted by Bratton and served as the foundation to overhaul the organization in the wake of the Rampart corruption scandal.

McDonnell joined the LAPD in 1981 and worked his way up the ranks, holding a variety of assignments in patrol, detective, vice, gang, organized crime, homicide and other divisions.

andrew.blankstein @latimes.com

tony.barboza@latimes.com