With Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck retiring Wednesday, the City Council is set to vote on his replacement, Assistant Chief Michel Moore, who was selected by Mayor Eric Garcetti to take over the department.
Moore’s confirmation vote by the City Council is not expected to be contentious among the body’s members, and the 36-year LAPD veteran is poised to replace Beck, who announced in January that he would be stepping down Wednesday after more than 40 years with the department and having served as its chief since late 2009.
The city charter calls for the Board of Police Commissioners to examine all applicants for the job before giving three recommendations to the mayor, who then selects a finalist who must be confirmed by the City Council.
Garcetti chose Moore over San Francisco police Chief William “Bill” Scott and Deputy LAPD Chief Robert Arcos.
The choice of the next chief carries a significant amount of symbolic weight in light of the department’s troubled history on race relations, the current #MeToo movement bringing sexual harassment into the public debate, and President Donald Trump’s aggressive rhetoric and actions on immigration.
The commissioners did not forward any women finalists to Garcetti — Assistant Chief Beatrice Girmala did not apply for the job despite being viewed by some as a potential top candidate — and Garcetti ended up choosing Moore over Scott, who is black, and Arcos, a Latino. The mayor insisted he simply wanted the best person for the job and wasn’t “looking to fill a demographic or make history” with the selection. Moore’s father was Basque, and he is listed as Hispanic on LAPD rosters.
Moore was also one of the three finalists chosen by the Board of Police Commissioners back in 2009, but then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa chose Beck. Moore has risen through the ranks of the department as a police officer, detective, sergeant, lieutenant and captain before taking on various high command roles. He was also placed in charge of the Rampart Division in 2000 in the aftermath of a scandal that found widespread abuse and corruption in the division.
As a young officer, Moore was involved in a fatal incident for which he received the department’s Medal of Valor after he shot and killed a suspect who had killed his wife with a semi-automatic rifle in a parking lot in 1986.
When he announced the selection earlier this month during a new conference, Garcetti said, “I’ve seen him work with difficult issues, whether it is with impounding cars and working with the immigrant community and his strong commitment to civil rights. I’ve seen his work personally. No one works harder. No one reads more. And no one has a greater breadth of experience.”
Moore is set to take over a department that in many ways has been on the upswing in recent years. Homicides are at their lowest sustained point in decades, and the department has markedly improved its standing in the community since the Los Angeles riots and the Rampart scandal in the 1990s gave it a national reputation for brutality and corruption.
But there are a number of significant challenges Moore is facing. Overall violent crime has risen for four straight years after 12 years of declines, police shootings have gone up although they are dropping in other large cities, and the department is still a focal point of criticism by the local Black Lives Matter movement, whose members regularly attend the meetings of the Board of Police Commissioners to chastise the department over the shootings of civilians.
“The most important question of the moment may be, why do I want to be the next chief of police of this great city?” Moore said after Garcetti introduced him as his selection. “And it’s pretty simple. I wish to continue the momentum of building trust, particularly in communities of color, and improving public safety while we build a more diverse and representative department.”
The City Council’s Public Safety Committee is set to vote on Moore’s appointment at 8:30 a.m. meeting before the full City Council takes up the matter at 10 a.m.